Good things come to those who wait
by flaminghotalchemist
Summary: It is two years after Ed and Riza started dating and Ed has a few things planed for his lover. Will Ed be able to keep his surprise a secret? And What's wrong with Mustang? This is the sequal to love on a winter's night and unexpected love.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

Good things come to those who wait

It has been two years since Ed had asked Riza out at the Christmas party and a lot of things had happened since, Ed was now a Colonel, Riza was a Major and Roy was a Major General. It all happened when Amestris' former fuhrer Olivia Armstrong left to stay at Briggs saying that that was where she belonged, not in Central sat behind a desk signing papers all day, she wanted to be with her men in Briggs on the front lines, so she relinquished her title as fuhrer, leaving Grumman as the new ruler. Rumours where going around that Armstrong was home sick having been at Briggs for many years and that though she would never admit to it she considered the soldiers at Briggs her second family.

With his promotion Roy was given a new office leaving his old one to Ed with his own subordinates. First Lieutenant Emily Knotts, second Lieutenant Nelson Griffen, second Lieutenant Louis Wolfemen, Warrant Officer Michael Todd and Major Susumu Wright The Experimental Alchemist, named for being the first State Alchemist to combine alchemy and rendanshu, xing's form of alchemy that is used for medical purposes. All of these soldiers are experts in their field and was hand picked by Roy for Ed.

Now that Ed had the same responsibilities that Roy had when he was a Colonel, he could appreciate all the hard work he actually did, even though most of the time it seemed that he wasn't working at all. Ed sat in the leather chair that Roy used to occupy, signing the paperwork that was on his desk. As he signed he thought about everything that had happened over the last few years. The Hughes' had had a new addition to the family with the arrival of baby Jake, Maes was now the head of the investigation department having been promoted to a Brigadier General and Armstrong was now a Colonel helping Hughes with investigations. Al and Winry had moved to Rush Valley with Winry now owning her own auto-mail shop and Al helping Paninya with repairs around the town. Yes everything had finally settled down and Ed was happy.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Lieutenant Knotts came into the room saying that Major Hawkeye was here to see him, Riza come into the room and saluting him.

"Hey Edward, I thought that I would bring you some lunch." Riza said putting a bag on his desk before giving him a kiss.

"Thank you Riza." Ed said picking up a form and reading it. "So does this mean that the General has finished most of his work.?" Ed asked knowing that Riza didn't usually come down to see him unless Roy had done at least half of his paperwork.

"Yeah, he's been working really hard lately so I said that he could have a break." Riza said sitting down on the couch. Ed smiled with the way she ordered Roy about people would think that she was the Major General. He stood up from his chair and took some of his finished paperwork to Emily who was working at her desk.

"Lieutenant Knotts, could you go down and hand these into the fuhrer for me please." Ed asked his first Lieutenant, Emily got up from her desk and took the papers. "Yes Sir." she saluted before heading to leave.

"Oh and Knotts, once you have done that you can take your break." He said smiling at her, she bowed and thanked him before leaving to go to the führer's office. Ed looked at everyone else in the office. "That goes for the rest of you, your all free to go and get some lunch." Ed said before going back into his office and sitting down next to Riza who handed him his lunch.

"Thanks, but you know you don't have to keep bringing me lunch." He said to her before tucking into his chicken salad sandwich, Riza giggled. "It doesn't stop you from eating it." she said. "Besides someone has to make sure that you eat."

"I do eat." Ed said. "It's not like I don't know how to cook." This made Riza laugh.

"Junk food doesn't count." Ed scold. "It's not like I don't want to eat healthy, It's just that by the time I get home I can't be bothered to." Ever since Al had left to live with Winry, Riza had noticed that Ed wasn't eat as well as he should have been, at first she thought that it was because he was depressed about Al leaving but later she founded out that the reason was because he was lazy.

"Oh by the way, Havoc wanted to know if you would like to join him and the others at the pub tonight after work." Riza said changing the subject. Ed finished of his sandwich and licked his fingers. "Yeah why not, it's been awhile since I went out with them. What time did he want to meet?" He asked her "He said that they are meeting at the pub at seven, that way you all have the time to go home and get changed." Riza said cuddling up to him. "I love you." she said giving him a kiss. "I love you too." Ed replied after the kiss, they sat holding each other for a while until someone knocked on the door. They both quickly separated before Ed told whoever it was to come in.

"Sorry to interrupted Sir, but I just saw General Mustang and he said that he needs Major Hawkeye for something." Major Wright said saluting his commanding officer. "Thank you Major." Ed said before dismissing him. "I'll see you tomorrow then, what time do you want me to pick you up? Ed asked Riza giving her a quick kiss. "You can come over at twelve, seeing as you will be going out tonight." Riza replied giving him the you better not be late look. Ed smiled "OK, and tell the others that I will see them later." Riza nodded, leaving the office to go see what Roy wanted that was so important.

Ed sat back at his desk and continued with his work, looking forward to a night out with the old gang.

At the pub Roy, Hughes, Havoc and Breada sat at their table waiting for Ed to arrive. They all thought that Ed might of changed his mind, until Havoc saw him standing near the door looking around for his friends. Havoc stood up and waved at him. "Hey boss over here."

Ed heard him and walked over to the table. "Hi guys sorry I'm late, had to read and sign some more papers that were given to me before I left." Ed said in explanation, he took of his coat and hung it up on the back of his chair before sitting down. Roy got up and went to order the first round of drinks whilst the others talked and joked about work. When he got back he handed everyone their drinks and sat down with his own.

"So Hughes how is baby Jake? I hear that he has started taking his first steps." Ed asked Maes, Roy moaned he had to sit and listen to Maes go on about this most of the morning. Maes smiled and reached into his pockets looking for something. "Oh he's doing great, he follows Elisha everywhere she goes it's so cute." Hughes said starting to frown.

"Now where have they gone?" He said to himself still searching his pockets, unaware that next to him Roy was holding up Maes' missing photo's that he had secretly taken from him earlier that day. He quickly hind them in his coat again so that Hughes wouldn't notice.

"What's up Maes?" Roy asked his friend knowing full well what was wrong.

"I can't find my photo's, I'm sure that I had them with me when I left your office earlier." He replied slightly panicking.

"Don't worry Hughes I'm sure that you probably just left them at the office." Jean said trying to calm the man down. "You think so? What if someone sees them and takes them." Maes asked in a panic.

"I'm pretty sure that no-one is going to go into your office and take your photos Hughes." Ed said drinking his beer.

"So what's Elisha like with him? I hear that older siblings can get jealous when another child is born into the family." Breada asked. "She's brilliant with him." Hughes beamed checking his trouser pockets to see if his photo's where in them instead. "She's been helping him with his walking and watches over him to make sure that he doesn't fall and hurt himself." He continued, giving up on searching for his photo's knowing that he wasn't going to find them.

Everyone had finished their drinks and it was Maes' turn to get the next round, he got up and headed to the bar. When the man was far enough to not hear they all burst into laughter. "You sneaky bastard, only you would steal a man's photos and torment them like that." Ed said giggling, Roy grinned. "It was either that or listen to him go on and on about his kids, that man is too obsessed with his family. It's annoying." Everyone agreed an obsessed Maes Hughes with one child was one thing but with two it was beyond annoying.

"Ha ha, so tell us how did you manage to get them?" Breada asked curiosity getting the better of him. Roy smirked. "That would be my little secret."

"What's your little secret?" Maes asked putting the drinks on the table. "Oh Breada was just asking me how I'm able to get any girl I want." Roy replied thinking on his feet.

"Yeah but the General is refusing to share his secrets." Breada said going along with Mustang. "Ha that's Roy for you, but if your looking for a girl to keep then you had better ask Edward for advice." Maes said passing everyone their drinks, Jean laughed.

"Yeah anyone who can get the infamous 'Hawks eyes' to go out with them and stay with them for nearly two years must be doing something right." Ed went bright red at the comment.

"There's no need to get all embarrassed boss, I was giving you a complement." Havoc said noticing the blush.

"So what's it like going out with Hawkeye? Give us the dirt." Breada asked.

"Yeah is it true that she take a gun with her everywhere she goes?" Asked Havoc.

"What does she look like in a dress?" Hughes asked because he had missed the last two parties and normally she would wear her uniform.

"What she like under the sheets Fullmetal?" Roy asked a perverted smile on his face.

"THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." Ed screamed, his face turning a brighter shade of red. Roy laughed. "Relax Ed, I'm only joking with you." He said drinking his brandy.

They changed the topic onto other things and drank there drinks, Hughes asked Ed how Al and Winry is and if they will becoming to visit. Ed told them that they where fine and that they would be coming down to visit at Christmas and would be coming to the party.

A few hours had gone by and it was Roy's turn to get the drinks again, he went up to the bar to order them when he saw a woman sitting at the bar. She was wearing a dark red dress that reached down to her knees and knee high black heel boots, her hair was a beautiful soft blonde that went down to her shoulders. She turned to him with a small smile on her face. "Hello" she said her hazel coloured eyes looking into his.

"I haven't seen you around here before, are you new in town.?" She asked him taking a sip of her drink. Roy snapped out of his stare. "Oh no I have lived here for many years now, this is just my first time at this pub. I usually go to the pub near my my home." Roy explained looking into her beautiful eyes again, they seem to remind him of someone but he couldn't figure out who.

"So what are you doing here?" She asked him. "I'm here with some work colleagues of mine, one of them comes here regularly." He said pointing out the table where the group where talking.

The woman turned to face him, her eyes once again staring into his like she was hypnotised by them. Roy gulped, he had been out with so many woman over the years and none of them had ever had this effect on him, it was usually him who had the woman swooning. He looked at her glass and noticed that it was empty.

"Would you like me to buy you a drink miss?" Roy asked putting his most charming smile on.

"Swan, Lisa Swan." She said offering him her hand. Roy took her hand and kissed it.

"Roy Mustang, it's a pleasure to meet you." Lisa froze and stared at him again. "Mustang, as in the Flame Alchemist, Hero of Ishval?" She asked Roy shivered, a sad look coming onto his face but disappearing just as quickly replaced with a smile. He hated that title, to him he was no hero just a mass murderer who killed thousands of people because he was ordered to. He hated being reminded of what he had done and that title always did, but like always he would hide his feelings because he had a beautiful woman in front of him that he maybe able to get a date with.

"Well I had better be going it's getting late." Lisa said standing up, she went to pay for her drink when Roy stopped her, he took out his wallet and put some money on the bar. Lisa looked up at him, who was offering her his arm.

"Well then the least I can do is walk you home, I hear that there is a murderer on the loose." Lisa blushed she wasn't used to men treating her like this.

"OK but what about your friends?" She asked pointing to there table, Hughes was looking at them with a knowing smile an his face.

"They'll be fine, besides I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something would to happen to a beautiful lady like you." Lisa smirked. "Then lets go." She put her arm around his and left the pub heading towards her apartment.

At the table Ed turned to see where Roy was with there drinks, he frowned when he saw him leaving the pub with a girl on his arm. "Hey where is that bastard going?" He asked, Havoc and Breada turned to see what Ed was talking about. When they saw Mustang Leaving with Lisa they grinned.

"Ha I wondered how long it was going to be until he sweet talked a girl home." Havoc said watching the two leave.

"Yeah, he just can't help himself, he sees a pretty girl at the bar alone and just has to talk to her." Hughes said.

"Well I think that it is rude running out on your friends like this, he could have a least came over and said goodbye." Ed said getting even more pissed off than usual because of the alcohol.

"Relax Ed, it's just like Hughes said he just can't help himself, it's who he is." Breada said looking at his watch, it was almost eleven o'clock. Hughes did the same thing before putting on his coat. "Well I had better be heading home, I promised Elisha that I would take them all to the zoo tomorrow." He said noticing the time, he saw Roy's coat on the back of the chair he was sitting on and picked it up. "She must have been something, he left without his coat." Ed got up as well. "I had better be heading home to, I've got a date with Riza tomorrow and I wouldn't want to be late." He said putting on his coat, Hughes and Ed left to go home leaving Havoc and Breada at the pub.

Roy was standing outside Lisa's apartment complex wishing her a goodnight.

"Goodnight Lisa it was a pleasure to meet you." He said kissing her hand, Lisa giggled.

"You know the night is still young." She said grabbing his hand and guiding him up to her apartment, Roy just smiled. "What did you have in mine?" He asked her as they stood in front of her door. "I have a few bottles of brandy that needs drinking if your interested?" Roy didn't have to say anything they both went into her apartment and drank her brandy whilst talking about meaningless things.

The next morning Roy was lying in his bed sleeping when he was suddenly woken up by someone banging on his front door, he looked at his clock on the wall and noticed that it was nine o'clock. Roy groaned who would be banging on his front door at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning? Roy snuggled into his blankets trying to ignore the person who had disturbed his sleep. He lay there trying to will himself to sleep but the person on his doorstep was very persistent and wouldn't stop banging on his door, so he got up, got dressed and went downstairs to burn who ever was banging on his door. Roy opened the door and frowned at the man standing in front of him. There on his doorstep was Maes Hughes holding what looked like his coat.

"What are you doing here Hughes?" Roy asked in annoyance, Hughes just smiled and walked into the house.

"Morning Roy, I just came over to give you back your coat." Maes said hanging the coat on Roy's coat peg behind the door. "You left in such a hurry last night that you forgot it." Roy gave Hughes an annoyed look.

"Well you didn't have to bring it over this early I was trying to sleep." Hughes didn't say anything, they both went into the kitchen where Roy made them both some coffee.

"So I take it that you had a good time last night? With the way you left us like that she must have been a real looker." Hughes said sitting down at the table. "What time did she leave? Will you be seeing her again?" He asked as Roy set a cup in front on him and sat down to drink his coffee.

"We went to her place for a few drinks, I think that it was around three when I left." Roy answered putting his cup on the table. "You know that I don't bring girls home with me, if I did then I would always have them knocking on my door." Roy finished taking another sip of his coffee, Hughes frowned. "You know you won't be able to find a wife if you keep every girl you meet at arms length, you are going to have to let someone in eventually." Roy frowned, this has always been a sore subject for him.

"Maybe I don't want them to get close, it's not like they'll like what they will find. Once they find out about what I did in Ishval they won't want anything to do with me." Roy said leaning back in his chair.

"You know not everyone is like that, I'm sure that you'll find the right girl some day, all you need to do is be a little bit more open." Roy looked at his best friend still frowning.

"I did once and she left me for another man, and the only other woman that has ever understood me is now with Fullmetal."

"You will find someone, you never know you might have already met her and haven't realized it." Hughes got up from the table and put his empty cup in the sink.

"Well I had better get going I'm taking Elisha and Jake to the zoo today, I wouldn't want to be late." Roy saw Hughes to the door to say goodbye, before leaving Maes slapped Roy on the back. "Just think about it OK Roy, that's all I ask." Roy smiled and nodded.

"OK, now go your kids are waiting and I want to go back to sleep." Roy said pushing Hughes out of the door, when he had gone Roy went back upstairs to his room all the while thinking about what Hughes had said, he thought back to his 'date' last night (Though technically it wasn't) and the feelings he had felt, so different from the feelings he gets from being with other women. Roy lay on his bed and fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time since the war and dreamt about the girl that he had only met last night.

**I hope that you all enjoyed. Please review I very much like to hear what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own fullmetal alchemist**

It was Monday morning and Ed was walking down Central HQ's corridors heading towards the führer's office, it was a month before the annual Christmas party and Ed had a request to ask of the Fuhrer. He approached the door and knocked, when he was asked to enter he walked into the office and closed the door behind him before saluting the man in front of him. Grumman finished signing something before putting his pen down and looked at the person who had entered his office.

"Ah good morning Colonel Elric, what can I do for you? Have you been having trouble with your subordinates again?" Ed bowed his head so that Grumman couldn't see the blush that was on his face. When Ed was promoted to a colonel and given his own subordinates he thought that he would start getting more respect, but when he came into his office one morning and was nearly blown up by a small paint bomb that was hidden in his leather chair, luckily he managed to shield himself from the blast and prevent his uniform from getting covered in red paint but the office ended up a complete mess. As punishment he made his men and woman clean up the office and then ran them around the courtyard until they dropped.

"No Sir I'm here to talk to you about the Christmas party." Grumman looked up at Ed.

"Yes that is coming up isn't it, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" He asked picking up his pen to start signing again.

"I have a request to make if that is all right?" Grumman nodded. "What is it that you need." Behind the closed door to the führer's office Ed told Grumman his plans for the party.

On the other side of Central Command Roy was signing away at his paperwork that needed to be handed into the fuhrer that day. He stopped when he heard someone walk into the office.

"Hello Hawkeye, are they the papers regarding the meeting I went to last week?" He asked her noticing the papers in her hands.

"Yes Sir they are." She said putting them on his desk. "They need to be handed in by the end of today." Roy slumped in his chair. 'Are the higher ups trying to kill me with exhaustion?' He thought to himself.

"OK Hawkeye I'll have them finished by the end of today." He said signing one of the papers.

"So did you enjoy yourself Friday night? Ed tells me that you left with a girl without saying goodbye to them. It had really pissed him off." Roy looked up at her surprised with her choice of words.

"He was pissed off?" Roy said with his eyebrow raised Riza nodded.

"Yes he said that he knew that that you are a 'bastard' but he didn't think that you would abandon your friends like that for a girl." Roy stared at Riza shock showing on his face before it faded away replaced with a smirk, Riza looked at Roy feeling his eyes on her. "What!" She said annoyed Roy just laughed.

"Since when do you swear?" Roy asked her giggling. "I don't, I was just telling you what Ed had said." She said picking up a stack of papers that Roy had finished to take to Fuhrer Grumman.

"Oh OK, I just thought that Fullmetal's attitude might be rubbing of on you." Riza blushed at Roy's choice of words, she turned to go and hand in the papers when Roy stopped her.

"To answer your question Major, yes I did enjoy myself." Riza gave Roy a small smile before leaving to go hand in the finished papers.

When she got to the Führer's door she went to knock went the door opened and Ed came out of the office.

"Hello Colonel Elric what are you doing here?" She asked smiling, Ed looked at her.

"Oh I was just discussing some things with the Fuhrer, I had a few ideas that I wanted to share with him." He told her fidgeting with something in his pocket.

"Oh what ideas?" She asked interested, it wasn't like Ed to offer ideas to help the millatery.

"Nothing important just things like changing the menu in the cafeteria, the men in the office keep complaining about how bad the food is." Riza's smile grow, she leaned forward and gave Ed a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'll see you later I have to hand these in to the Fuhrer." She said knocking on the door and entering the office, Ed went back to his office thinking about his plans for the up coming party. When he got back to the office he walked up to Lieutenant Knotts and handed her a piece of paper that was in his pocket.

"Lieutenant I have something that I wish for you to do for me." He said making her to look up at him. "I would like you find these people for me." Emily looked at him puzzled.

"Is this for a mission Sir." She asked standing up from her desk.

"No, but it is something that I have spoken to the Fuhrer about and he has agreed with." He said in explanation, Knotts nodded in understanding and went to search for the mystery people, Ed went into his office and started on his paperwork for the day.

A couple of hours had passed when a knock on his office door brought Ed's thoughts away from what he was reading, he asked the person at the door to come in and was surprised to see Fuhrer Grumman standing in front of his desk. Ed stood up and saluted the man who told him to relax and sit down.

"Colonel Elric I wish to talk to you about a mission that has just come in." Grumman said handing Ed a folder, Ed opened it and looked through it.

"As you know there has been a mass of murders been happening in Central the last few weeks." The Fuhrer said sitting down in the chair in front of Ed's desk.

"I had General Hughes and Colonel Armstrong investigate the case to see if they could find the person responsible. I just got had a phone call from the General saying that he has an idea of where the murder is though they still don't know the identity of the person." He explained "I want you and your team to go down to the location where we believe they are and check it out. If they are there then I want you to arrest them, I want no casualties understood this is to be a simple find and arrest understand." Ed nodded in understanding there had been too many missions recently and the citizens where starting to get annoyed with the millatery for all the collateral damage that had been caused during missions, Ed closed the folder and salute.

"Yes Sir I'll get straight on to it." Grumman stood up and left the office leaving Ed to call his men into the office to be debriefed, By this time Knotts had come back and had put her findings in the top draw of her desk. They all lined up in front of Ed's desk saluting.

"What's up Sir?" Major Wright asked hoping that they hadn't done anything to upset him.

"As you all know there has been many murders in Central over the last few weeks." Ed said giving his men a stern look. "General Hughes has been investigating and has found the location where he thinks the murderer may be hiding or taking his victims. Our orders are to go to this location and search for the murderer or any evidence that a murder has happened there, if the murderer is there then we our ordered to arrest them." Ed finished, he checked the location on a map of the city in front of him.

"I want you all to meet me at the old abandoned printing factory at nine tonight. Any questions?" He asked his team wanting to make sure that they all understood since this is their first mission since being recruited.

"Yes Sir, why at the old printing factory?" Lieutenant Knotts asked.

"When General Hughes and Colonel Armstrong went to see the coroner who has been examining the bodies of the found victims he said that he had found what looked like ink on one of the young girls hands. They examined the ink and found out that the ink is the kind used for printing newspapers." Ed said reading the file in front of him, his team nodded in understanding. Once that he knew that everyone understood the mission he dismissed them to go and finish of what they had been doing and prepare themselves for the mission that they would be doing that night.

At nine o'clock that night Ed and his team stood outside the old factory getting ready to search the building. They entered the factory and and looked around checking in every room that they came cross for any signs of anyone being there.

After a little while Ed and his team came across a corridor that splits into two directions, he looked in both directions to see if he could find anything that could tell him what way to go but found that both ways looked the same.

"I guess we don't have much choice, we are going to have to split up into two teams." Ed said pulling out a radio and handing it to Major Wright.

"Major Wright I want you to take Lieutenant Knotts and second Lieutenant Griffen and go that way." He said pointing in the direction he wanted them to go. "Second Lieutenant Wolfeman and Warrant Officer Todds you are with me." He turned and faced Wrights team. "If your team find the murderer first I want you to radio me and let me know. Do not pursue the person unless I tell you otherwise understood you are to wait for us to come and cover you OK." Wright saluted Ed before going in the direction that Ed had asked them to go in.

Fifteen minutes passed before Susumu and the others came across a door that was shut, Emily quietly creped up to the door and gently placed her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything. When she put her ear to the door she could hear a man's voice and a girl scream, she slowly opened the door so to not draw any attention to herself so that she and her team mates could see what was going on. In the middle of the room was what looked like a middle aged man kneeling over a scared young teenage girl, the man was holding a blooded knife and was dragging it across the girl's right leg drawing another scream out of her. The man laughed as he watched the blood slowly drip from the wound. Griffen who was standing behind Emily couldn't stand listening to the girl's screams, he pushed passed her and drew his gun pointing at the man's head.

"Step away from the girl and put your hands up." He shouted to the man who just laughed at him, instead he pulled the girl up to her feet and held his knife to her throat.

Emily and Susumu watched as the man held the knife to her throat threatening to slit it, Susumu panicked he didn't know what to do, if they ran in there as well then the man might kill the girl and the Fuhrer had said that he didn't want any causalities. Emily saw the panic in Susumu's eyes, she walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry I'll go and see if I can help Griffen, you call the Colonel and tell him what's happened and wait for him and the others to arrive." She told him, Susumu nodded and picked up the radio whilst Emily went into the room to try and help Griffen out of the mess that he had caused.

"Drop the knife and let the girl go." She said drawing her go on him, the man laughed again.

"I think that I will keep her right here." He said pressing the knife harder on to her throat making a trickle of blood run down her neck, causing the girl to cry out. Griffen hated it, he wanted to just shoot the sick bastard and put an end to the poor girl's suffering but couldn't with fear of hitting her by mistake. Then he noticed that next to the man was a water pipe, he pointed his gun and shot it causing water to burst out of the pipe startling the man and causing him to drag the knife across the girl's throat before dropping her to the floor. Emily ran to the put pressure on her wound to try and stop the bleeding. Wright who was standing near the door saw what had happened and ran into the room to help the Lieutenant with the girl's injuries, he went up to the girl but froze when he saw the blood, images of a troubled past flashing before his eyes. Knotts noticed the look of fear on Wright's face.

"Major this is no time to be panicking, get over here and use your alchemy to save her." She shouted at him pulling him out of his memories, he knelt down next to her and drew a circle and placed her on it so that her throat was in the centre of it before activating the array, a green light glowed and the girls wound began to heal.

"Your under arrest for the murder of ten young girl's and the attempted murder of one young girl." Griffen said walking up to the man who had backed himself up against a wall, he smiled in triumphant thinking that the man was trapped and had no where to run. The man grinned seeing that there was a pipe next to him that was connected to one of the printing machines, he waited watching as Griffen moved closer not realizing that he is walking into a trap, he waited until Griffen was close enough before pulling the old weak pipe and pointing it at Griffen who got ink sprayed in his face making him unable to see. The man laughed and picked up the knife that he had dropped and walked over to Emily and Susumu who was too busy trying to save the girl's life hadn't seen what had just happened, he raised his blade ready to bring it down and stab Emily when suddenly a spear hit the man's hand causing him to drop the knife again and fall to his knees in pain grasping his injured hand. Knotts turned around to see what had happened and saw Ed standing in the doorway panting from running to help them.

"Second Lieutenant Wolfeman go and arrest that man." Ed ordered walking into the room and looking around, he noticed Griffen on the floor wiping ink out of his eyes and frowned, he then saw Knotts and Wright sitting next to a young girl trying to keep her alive. He ordered Warrant Officer Todds to go and find some water for Second Lieutenant Griffen so that he could wash is face and walked over to the injured girl to see how they where doing.

"How is she?" He asked kneeling down next to them, Major Wright shook his head.

"Not so good Sir if we don't get her to a hospital soon..." Ed nodded in understanding.

"All right Second Lieutenant Wolfeman, Second Lieutenant Griffen and Warrant Officer Todds I want you three to take this man to HQ and put him in lock up, Major Wright and Lieutenant Knotts I want you to help me get this girl to the hospital and keep her alive until we get there." Ed said picking up the girl and carrying her to one of the two cars that Emily and Lewis had drove in to get there. Ed put the girl in the back seat and told Susumu to sit with her whilst Ed had her rest her head on his lap whilst Emily drove them to the hospital. When they arrived at the hospital the girl had become very pale and looked as if see had stopped breathing, Ed picked up the girl and ran into the reception area asking for someone to help them, a nurse came running over to them and asked someone to bring in a stretcher. The girl was taken into a room where two doctors and three nurses went into, Ed and the others waited outside the room hoping that the girl would survive. Thirty minutes passed before a nurse came out of the room to talk to them.

"Are you Colonel Elric?" The nurse asked walking up to them.

"Yes I am, how is the girl? Will she be OK?" Ed asked, the nurse shook her head.

"I'm really sorry we did everything that we could but she had lost too much blood and we wasn't able to resuscitate her." She told them bowing her head in sympathy. Ed thanked the nurse for her assistance and walked out if the hospital in an furious mood, he was going to have to do a lot of explaining tomorrow when he sees the Fuhrer and have a few words with his team about following orders.

The next morning Ed went to the Führer's office to hand in his report. He had been up all night thinking about the poor girl and ended up staying up to write up the report. He knocked on the door and waited for the reply before going into the room and saluting, Grumman looked up from his work and beckoned him to sit down in the chair in front of the desk. Ed handed Grumman his report and sat down.

"I hear that you and your team managed to catch the man responsible for the murders." He said reading through Ed's report, Ed just sat there in silence fidgeting with the hem of his coat. As Grumman read the report the more is expression changed from a pleasant smile to an angry frown, he put the report down and gave Ed a disappointing look.

"What's this about another dead victim?" He asked making Ed flinch. "The murderer had a young girl held captive, I had ordered Major Wright and his team to radio me if they found anything and to not pursue until I got there." Ed explained bowing his head. "I got a radio message from Wright saying that Griffen had ran into the room and that there was a victim that was being held at knife point, by the time I had got to the room the girl was lying on the floor with Wright and Knotts trying to keep her alive and Griffen was on the floor wiping ink out of his eyes." Grumman nodded.

"So Griffen ran into the room and caused the man to slit the girls throat?" Ed nodded.

"OK Colonel but I am still disappointed that this happened, especially with your experience. Maybe I was wrong to give you this mission, it looks like you need more improvement with your command skills."

"I am so sorry Sir." Ed said looking up at Grumman.

"All right Colonel Elric when you get back to your office I want you to make sure that you subordinates write up their reports and hand them in by the end of the day." Ed nodded and stood up from his chair. "Oh and Edward." Ed stopped and turned to face the Fuhrer. "Try to be more assertive with your team, it's all right with being their friends but don't forget that you are also their superior officer." Ed thanked and saluted Grumman before he headed back to his office.

When Ed got back to the office he asked Major Wright, Lieutenant Knotts and Second Lieutenant Griffen to come to his office, he sat at his desk and stared at each one of them as they stood in front of his desk.

"I think you all know why I have asked you all to see me." He said lacing his fingers together and rested his chin on them. "What happened in the room before I arrived?"

He asked them glaring at each of them.

"Well Colonel Sir you see..." Major Wright and Lieutenant Knotts told Ed about what happened and how Griffen had ran into the room to try and save the girl. Ed sat and listened to them and then stood up from his chair.

"All right Major Wright and Lieutenant Knotts you are free to go, please could you write up your reports and ask the others to do the same." He said dismissing them, they saluted before leaving the office to write up their reports. Ed frowned at Griffen who had stayed quite since coming into the office.

"Second Lieutenant Griffen, I want you to explain to me why you ran into the room and disobeyed my orders." He said to Nelson who bowed his head.

"Well Sir the man was using his knife to cut down her leg making her scream in pain, I tried to wait for Wright to radio you but I couldn't stand listening to her screams, so I ran into the room to try and save her." He said looking up at Ed who sat glaring at him.

When the man grabbed her I noticed a water pipe next to him and shot at it causing water to burst out and hit him. I was hoping that he would release the girl so that we could move in and arrest him."

"But he didn't did he?"

"No Sir he didn't, he slit her throat instead." Nelson said looking away from Ed.

"So what you are telling me is that you ran onto the room to save her and ended up causing the man to slit her throat?" Ed asked memories of the night before flashing before his eyes.

"I did what my instincts told me to do, he could have killed her."

"HE DID KILL HER." Ed screamed at him standing up from his desk. "He may of not killed her straight away, from what you have told me it sounds like he was toying with her, probably got of from hearing her scream and you ran in there to play hero and made everything worse." Nelson looked at Ed and frowned.

"From what I hear you used to do that all the time." He said causing Ed to walk up to him and grab him by him shirt.

"Yes when I was younger I did run into situations head first allowing my emotions to control my actions, but I never got anyone killed." He said fuming, he took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He didn't want to have to explain to Fuhrer Grumman why he had hit one of his men.

"This time I am going to let you off with a warning, but next time something like this happens I will have you court marshalled faster than you can blink. Understood." Griffen nodded and saluted before turning to leave.

"Oh and Nelson." Nelson stopped at the door. "Next time think before you act and learn to try and trust your team mates more, there isn't an I in team OK." Nelson smiled and left the office to write his report.

The next person to be summoned into the office was Susumu, who had also been up all night worrying about what had happened. He stepped into the office and nervously saluted Ed who was sitting back behind his desk looking at the scared state alchemist, he pointed to the chair in front of his desk and asked Susumu to sit down. Susumu looked at Ed with scared eyes before sitting down and fidgeting nervously with the chain of his pocket watch, Ed signed.

"Don't worry I'm not going to yell at you." Ed said Susumu looked up in confusion.

"But Colonel the girl died, if I hadn't of hesitated then she might have lived." He said looking at Ed with guilt in his eyes, Ed gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I know which is why I have asked you to come and see me. I want to know the reasons why you hesitated so that I can help you." Ed said leaning in his chair.

"So what happened? What made you hesitate?"

"Well Colonel it was the blood, you see when I was little my mum and dad took me and my brother to visit some relatives in Xing. You see I'm half Amestrian and Half Xinginess." Ed nodded he remembered reading it in Susumu's file. "We went to see my aunt and uncle who had promised to help me improve my kunai skills, I was practising outside in my uncles back garden when my little brother ran in front of me and he accidentally got stabbed in the eye. I was so panicked that I had ran into the house and got my uncle who took him to the hospital but unfortunately my brother lost his eye, ever since that day I had a fear of blood. I had thought that I had finally over came my fear when I had started training with my healing alchemy but I guess I haven't." Susumu said putting his head in his hands.

"I see so you witnessed your brother get servilely injured when you where little and when you saw the blood last night it reminded you of what happened." Ed said Susumu nodded.

"But why didn't you tell me this when you became apart of me team?"

"Because I was afraid that if people found out that I was afraid of blood, then I would be laughed at and not taken seriously." Susumu said ashamed of himself Ed smiled at him.

"Can you keep a secret?" Ed asked, Susumu nodded.

"The first time I saw a lot of blood on a murder scene I fainted because it reminded me of what happened to me when I was little and I lost my arm and leg." This made Susumu look up at Ed. "You did? What happened to you arm and leg?" He asked Ed who shivered, he hated remembering that night and the thing that he and his brother did.

"When I was little I lived in a small village called Resembool, at that time Amestris was still at war with Ishval and the Ishbalans where attacking are village because we made the wool for the Amestrian millatery. Me and my brother had gone down to play near the woods and we didn't noticed the hidden bomb until it was too late, I was able to get Al out of the way but I got caught in the blast. Lucky my neighbour was a surgeon and auto-mail mechanic other wise I would have died." Ed said telling Susumu the lie that he had told the higher ups when he became a state alchemist.

"So don't be ashamed of being afraid of blood cause I'm sure that if you ask anyone in the command centre you will find that you are not the only one." Ed said smiling at him.

"Thank you Colonel, I won't worry about it any more." Susumu said standing up and saluting.

"That's OK Major, if you ever need to talk you know where to find me." He said dismissing Susumu who left the office to finish of his report, leaving Ed to do his paperwork that is due that day.

**Thank you for reading I hope that you enjoyed, please review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

It was lunch time and everyone in Roy's office had gone to have their break, Roy had finished almost all of his paperwork and was leaning back in his chair staring out of the window at Central. A fresh layer of snow covered the ground as he saw people going about their business, as he watched he thought about Lisa and the night that they had spent together. He thought about the feelings that he had felt, like he had been a teenage boy again with a school yard crush, he couldn't stop thinking about her even when he was on a date with another one of his many admirers. His thoughts kept going back to that night in her apartment, the way she had made the first move and kissed him, the way she had touched him in a way that no other woman had. He turned to the phone on his desk, 'maybe Hughes is right, I won't know unless I try.' He thought to himself, he picked up the phone and dialled the number she had given him before he had felt.

"Hello." Came her soft voice on the other end of the line.

"Good afternoon Miss Swan, How are you this fine day?" He asked her in his most charming voice.

"Oh Mustang, I wasn't expecting you to call. I'm fine, how are you?"

"I'm OK thank you, I was calling to ask if you were doing anything tonight?" He asked, the line went quite for a couple of minutes and Roy thought that he could hear the sound of paper rustling in the background.

"No I'm not doing anything tonight, what did you have in mind?" She asked in a flirtatious voice that sent shivers down Roy's spine.

"I was thinking that we could go to dinner if you would like to?"

"I would love too, what time?"

"I will pick you up at eight."

"OK I'll see you tonight at eight, bye Roy." Lisa said hanging up the phone, Roy put the phone down and smiled, he picked up his pen and started signing his papers again so that he could leave on time for his date.

In Ed's office Emily had finished writing up her report and handed it into Ed who read through it.

"Good work Lieutenant." He said signing his name on it and putting it on his finished pile, he dismissed the Lieutenant and went back to signing the papers that had to be finished by the end of the day. Emily went to leave the office when she remembered the information that Ed had asked her to get the previous day, that she had put in her draw for safe keeping. She went to her desk and pulled out the piece of paper that was in the top draw before turning around and headed back to Ed's office. She knocked on the door that she had left open and waited until he looked up at her.

"Yes Lieutenant what is it?" He asked looking up from his work.

"Sorry to disturb you Sir, but I have the information on the people you asked for yesterday." She said walking up to his desk forgetting to close the door behind her and handing the piece of paper to Ed.

"Found information on who?" Came the familiar voice of Major Hawkeye, Knotts quickly turned around and saluted Riza who had just walked into the office, Ed quickly hid the piece of paper in his draw and stood up to greet her.

"Oh nobody important, just someone I asked Lieutenant Knotts to look up for me." He said walking up to her, he dismissed Emily who shut the door behind her and guided Riza to the couch. Riza noticed the dark circles under Ed's eyes and realized that he must be upset about something.

"Ed are you OK?" She asked him concerned, Ed looked up at her.

"I'm fine why do you ask?" He said giving her a fake smile, but it was hard to hind the tiredness in his voice. Riza cuddled up to him to offer him some comfort.

"I heard about what happened on you mission." She said hugging him close. "I over heard the Fuhrer talking to the General about it, he was saying that he thinks that you might not be ready for your own subordinates."

"Maybe he is right, I should have had better control of my team. Maybe if Second Lieutenant Griffen had listened to me because he trusted my judgement and Major Wright had of felt that he could have talked to me about his problem with blood, then maybe everything would have gone differently and that girl wouldn't have died." Behind the door to the office was Nelson and Susumu listening to the conversation that Ed and Riza was having, they had both finished writing their report and was about to knock when they heard what their Superior officer had just said. They stood listened as Ed blamed himself for what had happened on the mission and felt guilt creep up to their chests, looking at each other they made a discussion and left the office heading towards the Führer's office.

Back in Ed's office Riza sat holding her lover as he blamed himself for the girls death, she frowned knowing that if Ed didn't stop pitying himself then he would end up in a never ending spiral of depression, she put her hand on his chin and made him look at her.

"Ed it wasn't you fault, Griffen was the one who disobeyed your orders and cost that poor girls life not you. You have to stop doing this to yourself, how do you expect your team to respect you if you break down every time something goes wrong. You need to show them that you are a strong Superior Officer and that you can be relied on to help when they need you and don't be afraid to tell them if they have done something to upset you, they will respect you more for your honesty." She said looking into his eyes, Ed looked at her and smiled. 'She's right I should be showing everyone that I can do this rather than sitting here in self pity,' he thought as he hugged her.

"Thanks Riza your right I need to show them that I am a strong officer." He said with fire in his eyes, the same fire that she had seen when he had first joined the millatery all those years ago. She handed him the lunch she had brought him and ate in silence happy that her boyfriend was finally back to his old self.

Outside the Führer's office Nelson and Susumu stood and knocked waiting for an answer before entering the office and saluting the man at the desk in front of them. Grumman looked up and was surprised to see two of Ed's subordinates in his office.

"Major Wright, Second lieutenant Griffen what can I do for you." He said signing his name on the bottom of a form that needed his approval, Susumu and Nelson walked over to the desk.

"Fuhrer Grumman Sir we are here to talk to you about what happened last night on the mission you had assigned us." Wright said nervously.

"We have heard that Colonel Elric could be demoted and we were wondering if you could reconsider." Nelson said saluting, Grumman looked at the two men in front of him.

"I'm afraid that Colonel Elric has proven that he isn't ready to be in command of his own unit." Grumman said picking up another form to read.

"But Sir it wasn't his fault I was the one who caused the incident with the girl, if I had of listened to what Colonel Elric had ordered me to do the girl wouldn't have died." Griffen said looking at the Fuhrer with pleading eyes.

"And if I hadn't of hesitated and took more control of the situation like the Colonel had wanted then I could have stopped Second Lieutenant Griffen from storming into the room to play hero. We are the ones that should be punished not the Colonel, he was the one that saved us when the murderer was going to kill us." Wright continued also looking at Grumman with pleading eyes, Grumman looked up at them from the papers he was reading and thought about what the two soldiers had said.

"OK I won't demote the Colonel, but I expect to see some improvement on future missions understand." He said giving into the two men's pleads, Wright and Griffen smiled.

"Thank you Sir we won't let you down, we promise to follow every order given to us." They said Grumman smiled.

"Good be sure that you do. You know the Colonel is lucky to have two honest men on his team, tell the Colonel that I would like to speak with him at the end of the day." He told them, they both thanked the Fuhrer again before heading back to the office to relay the message.

Back in the office Ed and Riza sat on the couch cuddling close to each other, Ed looked into Riza's eyes and kissed her sliding his tongue along her bottom lip asking for entrance, Riza opened her mouth and allowed Ed to explore every inch of it enjoying the feeling. Someone knocked on the door and they quickly moved away from each other before Ed asked the person to enter, even though everyone knows that Ed and Riza are together it still wasn't good to get caught kissing in the office. Griffen and Wright entered the office and gave Ed their finished reports who read and signed them before putting them on to his finished pile. Ed dismissed them and went back to his work noticing the time on the office clock.

"Oh Colonel on the way back from the rest room I ran into the Fuhrer, he said that he would like to see you at the end of your shift." Griffen said standing in the doorway, Ed gave Riza a worried look.

"Don't worry I'm sure that everything will be all right." Riza said with a wary smile, she stood up from the couch and walked up to Ed to give him a quick kiss.

"I had better be heading back, I wouldn't want the General to think that he can slack off." She picked up their lunch bags and walked to the door to leave.

"I will see you later and don't worry I have known Fuhrer Grumman for years, I'm sure that he isn't as unreasonable as people make him out to be." She said as she left his office, Ed sat down at his desk and started on his small pile of paperwork so that he could get them finished and handed in to the Fuhrer at the end of his shift. At five o'clock Ed was standing outside Fuhrer Grumman's office, he opened the door and walked in saluting.

"Colonel Elric reporting as ordered Sir." He said standing nervously at Grumman's desk.

"Hello Colonel Elric I see that Wright and Griffen gave you my message." Grumman said signalling for Ed to sit down which he did.

"As you probably know there have been some discussions on rather or not I should demote you." Grumman said giving Ed a stern look making Ed look away.

"I had considered demoting you to a Lieutenant Colonel and have you work under General Mustang until we felt you ready to have your own team again, but after having a visit from Major Wright and Second Lieutenant Griffen I have reconsidered. They told me that they where to blame for what had happened and said that they wish for you to keep your rank and stay as their commanding officer." Ed looked up at Grumman in surprise, Susumu and Nelson had spoken to the Fuhrer to help him keep his position.

"You have some good soldiers working under you, it seems that you do have some good command skills, though I still think that you still need some improvement I feel that you have proven that you are capable, that is why I am allowing you to keep your rank and subordinates." Ed looked at Grumman and smiled.

"Thank you Sir I promise that I won't let you down." He said standing up and giving the Fuhrer another salute, Grumman smiled.

"I know, you have potential Edward you just need a bit more experience." Ed gave Grumman his finished paperwork for the day and waited for the Fuhrer to dismiss him before leaving the office to go home. As he was walking down the corridor he saw Riza waiting for him.

"So how did it go?" She asked him with a knowing smile, Ed gave her a suspicious look.

"You already knew what was going to happen didn't you?" He said not answering her question, Riza smiled.

"Yes I did, when I got back to the office earlier Fuhrer Grumman was there talking to the General about what he had decided and that he wants Mustang to help you with your command skills." She said as they walked out of Central command and down the street towards Riza's apartment.

It was seven o'clock and Roy was getting ready for his date with Lisa, he put on his suit and went into his bathroom to look at him self in the mirror. He took out some hair tonic and put some on his hands to rub in his hair, he checked the clock in the hallway and put on his coat ready to leave to pick up Lisa. It was eight o'clock when Roy knocked on Lisa's door, he stood and waited for her to answer holding a beautiful pink thorn-less rose in his hand. She opened the door and he was mesmerized by her appearance, she was wearing a long pink dress that had thin straps, her hair was down and she wore pink shoes matching her dress. Roy looking at her in astonishment she looked so much like Hawkeye the night that he realised that he had lost her, it was uncanny, the colour of her eyes and hair, her beautiful figure, the only difference was that Hawkeye wasn't as girly as Lisa. Roy shook his head trying to not think about Riza she was with Ed and happy and he was over her wasn't he? Lisa gave him a warm smile.

"Roy are you OK? You look like you have seen a ghost or something." She said, Roy smiled back.

"I'm OK it's just that you remind me of someone I work with that's all." He responded, he held up the rose that he was holding and pinned it to her dress.

"it's a thorn-less rose, it means..."

"Love at first sight" Lisa said finishing Roy's sentence for him, Roy blushed suddenly embarrassed with his choice of flower, Lisa giggled.

"It's lovely thank you, not many men buy me flowers." She said grabbing her coat and locking her door. They went outside and got into the car that Roy had driven in and drove to the restaurant that Roy was taken her to. The restaurant wasn't a fancy one like you would expect Roy to take his dates, it was a simple small restaurant where people would go with friends or family. Roy looked for a table and pulled out a chair for Lisa before sitting down and handing her the menu to order, After sitting there for a while a waiter came over to ask for there orders.

"Good evening Sir and Madam, may I take your order?" He asked standing by their table with a pad and pen in his hands.

"Yes thank you I will have the paste al salmone affumicato." Lisa said handing the menu to Roy.

"I'll have the same please." Roy said handing the menu to the waiter who wrote the order down. "What would you like to drink with your meals?" The waiter asked looking at the two, Roy looked at Lisa. "Lady's choice." He said passing her the wine menu, she glanced at it before deciding what she would like.

"Could we have a bottle of Galassi Albana please." She said handing the wine menu to the waiter who went to order their meals. Roy and Lisa sat at the table waiting for their meals to come.

"So how have you been? Where your friends upset with you for leaving them at the pub on Friday night?" She asked Roy shrugged. "Not really, one of them was but he doesn't usually go out with us." He answered.

"Oh why not?"

"He only became legal to drink a few years ago and doesn't like to go out much unless he knows that he doesn't have to go on a mission." Roy answered, Lisa gave Roy a confused look.

"Is he new to the millatery then?" She asked him.

"No he has been in the millatery for eight years, have you heard of the Fullmetal Alchemist?" He asked with a smile on his face, Lisa looked at him with shock.

"You mean the youngest state alchemist to ever be certified into the millatery?" Roy nodded his head. "So what is it like working with him? I bet that you two are always completing against each other, with you both being famous alchemist." Just as Roy was about to answer the waiter came over with their wine and meals, he put the plates down in front of them and pored them each a glass of wine and left the bottle. They both had a drink of their wine before tucking in to there meals.

"To answer your question Lisa, no we don't really compete. Ed doesn't really like the whole being famous thing." Roy said eating his salmon and pasta in sauce.

"What about you? Do you like the famous life?" She asked, Roy looked up at her and into her eyes. "It has it's perks."

"Like picking up girls at a bar?" Lisa questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Something like that, but it also has it's benefits for when I take a girl out on a date it usually helps me get the best tables." Roy said, Lisa gave him a look that said that that doesn't impress her, Roy bowed his head.

"I'm not giving you a good impression am I?" He asked as he ate his dinner, Lisa took a sip of her wine.

"Not really but I do like your honesty." She said giving him a smile which in turn relaxed Roy. "So what about you? Do you have a job?" Roy asked he didn't usually get this close to a girl he was dating but he was going to if only to tell Hughes that he had to get him of his back and to see if Hughes was right and that he could get a girl to like him for who he is.

"I work for my mum and dad, at a local grocery shop that my parents own." She said taking another sip of wine.

"You work for your parents, have you ever thought about starting your own business?"

"No the shop has been in my family for generations, the ownership was past down from my dads dad." She said Roy looked at her and smiled. "Though I did think about joining the millatery when I was little but my parents won't let me saying that if I did then who would help them in the shop." Roy was about to ask her why she was interested in joining the millatery when the waiter came to take their plates for them.

"Would either of you like to order a dessert?" He asked them, Roy looked at Lisa who shook her head. "No thank you, a girl needs to look after her figure." Lisa said patting her hips Roy laughed.

"You don't need to watch your figure Lisa you look beautiful the way you are." Lisa blushed at this comment, she had never had a guy treat her so nice before she started to fell like a lady for the first time in a long time. Roy paid the waiter and helped Lisa with her coat making Lisa's blush deepen. They got to Roy's car and he drove her home and escorted her to her door.

"Thank you Roy, I had a lovely time." Lisa said giving Roy a kiss on the cheek.

"It was my pleasure, it made a change to be able to go out with a girl and have a normal conversation with out them trying to make it all about me." This made Lisa giggle. "I enjoyed myself too, it was nice to go out with a guy who wasn't trying to get into my pants." Roy laughed. "Well I already have haven't I." He said winking, Lisa pouted.

"That time doesn't count, it wasn't really a date and we were already really drunk when we met." She said giving him a friendly smile. She asked Roy if he wanted to come in for some coffee.

"I would but I can't, I have to be at work in the morning." Roy said he kissed her hand and said good night to her before leaving to go home and sleep.

Over the next few weeks Roy and Lisa went on a few more dates and Roy started to believe that she was the right girl for him, he couldn't stop thinking about her, he had never felt like this for any other girl except for one and that was in his past. He looked at the paperwork on his desk, he was starting to fall behind on his work again and he didn't want Hawkeye to have a reason to draw her gun on him, (even if he knew that she wouldn't actually shoot him) he didn't won't to revert back to his old ways of being lazy around the office. He started to read one of the forms on his desk when someone walked into his office.

"Hey Roy how are you doing?" Hughes asked sitting down on the couch, Roy sighed at this rate he wasn't ever going to get his paperwork done.

"Hey Hughes, you skipping out on work again?" Roy said signing the form that he was reading, Hughes frowned. "I do not skip work, I am just taking my break." Roy just ignored him.

"So what brings you here today? Did Jake say his first word or Elisha has got a good grade at school?" Roy asked picking up another form to read so that if Hawkeye came into the office she could see that he was working and not slacking off.

"Well actually Elisha has been asked to play the leading roll in the Christmas nativity at her school, she is such a little actress I can see her having a bright future." Hughes said pulling out the photos that he carries around with him everywhere and shoving them into Roy's face. "Look how adorable she is in her costume, oh and here's one with Jake dressed in a fireman's outfits and this one is Elisha helping Gracia feed Jake his breakfast, aaawww she is such a good girl always helping." Hughes said as he kept on shoving pictures under Roy's nose.

"Hughes even though I would love to sit here and look at these photo's with you, I have too much work to do." Hughes looked at all the paperwork on Roy's desk. "Wow Roy what happened? I thought that you where keeping on top of your work now." He said surprised with the amount of papers on Roy's desk.

"I haven't been able to concentrate properly ever since I met Lisa." Roy said in explanation, Hughes gave Roy a knowing smile. "Really? So do you get butterflies in your stomach every time you think about her? Your heart pound whenever you hear her voice?" Hughes asked his friend Roy signed, he told Hughes about how ever since he had started dating her he hasn't been able to go out with any other girl without constantly wishing that they where her.

"Roy I believe that you may be in love." Hughes said giving Roy a warm smile.

"I know Maes, but I don't know what to do."

"Have you tried telling her how you fell?" Roy shook his head. "No Maes I haven't, I'm to afraid that she will turn me down just like..."

"Roy you have to stop living in the past and allowing fear to rule you. If you don't then you will never be truly happy." Maes said interrupting Roy. "You will never know unless you try." Hughes said placing a hand on Roy's shoulder, Roy smiled at his best friend. "OK Maes I will call her later and ask her if she would like to go out on Saturday." Roy said, he picked up one of his many forms and started reading whilst Maes went back to his office to file up some reports.

On the other side of HQ Riza was on her way to Ed's office to give him the lunch that she had made him and so that she could check up on him. She hadn't been able to see him for a couple of days because he was always to busy and Riza was starting to get suspicious of her boyfriend. She went into the outer office and noticed that no-one was in there. 'Maybe they all went out to lunch' she though as she knocked on the door to Ed's office, she waited for a few minutes but no-one replied so she went into the office to find that it was empty. 'I wonder where Ed is, he knows that I come to his office at this time' she thought to herself as she sat down on the couch to wait for him. She looked around the room wondering where her boyfriend could of ran off to. "Maybe he had to go to a meeting." She said to herself, she looked at his desk and noticed that it was a mess with papers all over it and sweet wrappers on the floor near the bin. Not being a person that can sit whilst the room was untidy she stood up and walked over to the desk to sort out the papers. Riza was putting the forms in a neat pile when she noticed that a small piece of paper had fallen out of one of the folders, she picked it up to read it and her heart almost stopped. Written on the piece of paper was a phone number and a girls name with a date written next to it, Riza couldn't believe it, was Ed cheating on her? Was that the reason why she hadn't been able to see him the last couple of days? These where the thoughts that where going through her head when she heard Ed's voice in the other room heading towards his office, Riza panicked if Ed caught her in his office holding the piece of paper then he would probably think that she was spying on him and didn't trust him. Riza quickly put the paper back on the desk and sat down on the couch just as Ed walked in.

"Hi Riza is it that time already?" Ed asked her looking at his pocket watch, Riza just sat there looking at the floor. "Riza are you OK? You look a bit pale." Ed said worried sitting down next to her, Riza just nodded.

"Yeah I just feel a bit sick that's all." She said still not believing what she had found on his desk. Ed looked at her with worry. "Is there anything that you want me to do for you? Maybe get you a glass of water or something." Ed asked Riza who shook her head.

"No but I think I may go and speak to the General and ask him if I could go home early today." She said standing up to leave, this made Ed worry even more it wasn't like Riza to take time of work and she definitely would never ask if she could finish work early so she could go home, something must of happened. Riza left work early that day and went home to cry still shocked by what she had found in Ed's office, she was starting to doubt their relationship and she didn't like the feeling.

**Thanks for read and please review I really do like knowing what you think of it. I will try to have the next chapter up a bit quicker.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist**

Ed was sat in his office thinking about Riza, it had been two days since Riza had last been in work and it wasn't like her to take time off unless it was for holiday leave. Ed had tried to call her but she wouldn't answer the phone, something had to be wrong and Ed was going to find out what. He thought about going down to see Riza but decided that he probably should wait till after work, so instead he went down to see Mustang to see if he knows anything about Riza being off work. He walked to Roy's office and found Havoc in there organising the papers on Roy's desk.

"Hey Boss, what brings you here this morning?" Havoc asked Ed who sat down on the couch.

"I've come to speak to the General." Ed looked around the room noticing that Roy wasn't in the office.

"Where is Mustang?"

"He's gone to a meeting with the other General's." Jean said sitting down next to Ed and having a drink of his coffee that he usually has in the morning. "Apparently there could be some promotions being given and the General could be one of them with all the hard work he's been doing recently." Ed didn't bother to say anything, it was true that the General had been working harder since Armstrong resigned as the Fuhrer, probably because he knows that Grumman doesn't have anything against him.

"When do you think the General will be back?" Ed asked Havoc who looked at the office clock.

"Not until lunch I would say, why has something happened?" Havoc knew about what had happened with Ed and his team on the mission they had done and knew that something must be really wrong if Ed wanted to talk to Mustang.

"Nothings happened I just wanted to know if he had heard anything from Riza." Havoc shook his head.

"Not that I know of, though he could have check up on her on his way home from work." Everyone knew that Roy and Riza had known each other for along time and where good friends, so Jean wouldn't put it past Roy to go to Riza's apartment to check up on her. Ed stood up from the couch and headed to the door.

"OK well I had better get back to the office, tell Mustang that I may come to see him later." Ed said before leaving to go back to his office.

In his office Ed thought that since Riza wasn't in again today it would be safe to make the phone call his been meaning to make, he went into his draw and pulled out the small piece of paper that Emily had given him and dialled the number.

"Hello" Answered a feminine voice. "Hello is this Sophie Thomson?" Ed politely asked the woman, outside the office Riza was standing by the door she had been at home for two days trying to get over the shock of finding the number on Ed's desk. She felt ashamed of herself for being so foolish, Ed would never do that to her he loves her too much. Riza was about to knock on the door when she heard Ed talking to someone.

"Hello Miss Thomson this is Edward Elric, I understand that you spoke to Miss Knotts a few days ago regarding the request of you services." Ed said to the person on the phone, Riza was shocked 'the request of her service?' She thought confused, interested in hearing more Riza slightly opened the door so that she could hear better and see the look on Ed's face as he spoke to the girl.

"I was just ringing to confirm that you are able to still meet me and discuss thinks feather in private." Ed said in a kind and polite voice, Riza couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was Ed asking to meet a girl for a private discussion? Why would he need to? Was he hiding something from her? 'He must be hiding something from me, why else would he want he meet her for a private chat?' She thought the emotions from the other day coming back and she had to quickly compose herself as Ed's subordinates where in the room and watching her with suspicion.

"You are great, when will be a good time for you? Saturday two o'clock at the silver moon café. OK I will see you there, thanks Sophie for your help, goodbye." Ed hung up the phone and put the number back into his draw.

'Sophie? That's the name that was on the piece of paper I found the other day on Ed's desk.' Riza thought, she nearly turned to leave the office but stopped herself. 'I'm not a coward, I will go in there and confront Ed about this and get some answers' she composed herself again and knocked on the door before entering the office.

As soon as Ed saw her he jumped up from his seat and ran to give her a hug. "Riza, how are you? Are you feeling better?" Ed asked worry showing in his voice, this made Riza even more confused, if he was cheating on her or keeping something from her why would he be this concerned about her? Is it guilt? Ed gave Riza a hug showing how worried he was about her.

"Riza I was so worried I tried to call you but you wasn't answering your phone and when I came to visit you, you wouldn't answer your door." Ed said wondering why she would do that unless she was seriously ill.

"I'm OK Ed, I was being really sick and I couldn't get to the phone or door. I'm sorry for worrying you." She lied, too ashamed to admit that she wouldn't answer her phone or door because she didn't want to see anyone.

"That's OK it's just that it isn't like you to be off work for this long." Ed said happy to see that she was all right even though she did still look a little pale.

"Are you sure that you are OK to be in work? You still look a little pale." Riza nodded. "Yes Ed I'm fine I just need to have something to eat that's all." Ed smiled he guided her to the couch and cuddled up to her.

"So who where you talking to on the phone?" Riza asked which made Ed panic slightly before relaxing again.

"I was talking to someone who has a interesting alchemy theory and wants my to have a look at it so I can deicide if it could help the millatery." Ed replied thinking on his feet, Riza wasn't fully convinced.

"Then why all the secrets? Why don't you just talk to them openly?" She asked Ed who seemed a bit worried. 'How much of the conversation did she hear?' He thought.

"I haven't told anyone about this because she asked me not to, she's worried that if someone else was to find out then they would try to steal her research." Ed said once again thinking on his feet. Riza seemed to buy this, 'that seems reasonable all alchemist are edgy about their research falling into the wrong hands, my farther was so paranoid that he tattooed his on my back.' She thought, at first she was worried about showing Ed her back but knew that he wouldn't use the research and would love her even if she didn't have the tattoo.

They sat their in silence for a while just enjoying each others company, after half an hour Riza looked at the office clock.

"I should be heading to Roy's office, they don't even know that I'm in and I didn't ring in this morning." Riza said standing up, Ed gave Riza a passionate kiss.

"I've missed that." He said when they parted slightly breathless, Riza left the office to let Roy know that she was in.

When Riza got back to the office she noticed that everyone was sitting around talking and joking instead of doing there work, Riza not being in the mood to be messed around moved so that she was standing behind them and fired her gun which had blanks in them. Everyone stopped talking and turned around to see Riza standing there in a bad mood.

"Oh hello Lieutenant we didn't know you was coming in today." Havoc said rushing to get his work done.

"How are you feeling today Lieutenant?" Fuery asked looking at a broken radio, Riza just glared at him.

"I'm fine, though I don't appreciate coming back to work and finding you all slacking off." Everyone gulped, it had been along time since Riza was in a bad mood.

"We are sorry Lieutenant, we was just waiting for the General to come back from his meeting." Breada said flinching, Riza cocked her gun again causing everyone in the office to start working. She went into Roy's office and checked to see how much of his work he had done in her absence and noticed that the desk was almost clear of papers.

"Well I guess that someone has been doing their work." She said turning and heading to her desk to do the paperwork she needed to catch up on.

In Ed's office Major Wright was talking to Ed about his alchemy research. "I'm trying to find away to mend broken bones with alchemy but I can't think of the right elements to use in the transmutation circle." Susumu said looking through his notes, Ed nodded thinking of what he could use.

"Well bones are made up of calcium, phosphorus, sodium and other minerals, as well as the protein collagen." Ed said thinking out loud.

"How about an array that has calcium as it's main element and then have other elements to help with the healing of the bone as well?" Susumu asked, Ed looked at Susumu's notes.

"I don't really know that much about bio-alchemy but I do know someone who does." Ed said passing Wright is notes back. "His name is Dr Marco and he is an expert in bio-alchemy and would be more than happy to help." Susumu gave Ed a smile and stood up from his chair.

"Thank you Sir for your help." He said saluting, Ed waved it off. "It's know problem I'm happy to help a fellow alchemist, I will ask Marco if he can meet you somewhere where you two can discuss your research." Major Wright bowed and left the office to go and file some reports for the Colonel. Ed sat back in his chair it was lunch time and Riza hadn't been over to see him like she normally did.

'Maybe I have upset her somehow, she did seem like she was in shock the other day when she went home sick, and the piece of paper with Sophie's number on was on the desk when I know that I had left it in one of my folders.' Ed looked out of the window at some of the soldiers shovelling the snow of the path. 'Come to think about it my desk looked really tidy when I got back and she looked like she was surprised like she was doing something she shouldn't of.' The more that Ed thought about it the more it looked like that Riza had found the piece of paper and had come to the conclusion that he is cheating. 'Riza wouldn't think that of me would she?' Just as Ed was thinking someone knocked on the door, he asked them to come in and saw Roy walk into the office.

"Hello Colonel Elric." He said walking in and sitting down on the couch, Ed looked at Roy in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" He asked him picking up a form that was on his desk.

"What? Can't I come and see how you are doing?" Roy said looking a little hurt, Ed gave Roy a suspicious look. "You can but you don't usually." Roy pouted at Ed making him grin.

"I'm actually here because Havoc said that you was looking for me this morning." Roy said, Ed sighed.

"I was looking for you because I wanted to know if you had heard from Riza, but she came in to see me this morning so I don't need to ask you now." Ed said signing his name on the bottom of the form. "How is Riza? She looked a little pale this morning when a saw her." Ed asked concerned, Roy smiled at him.

"Other than being in a bad mood because she walked into the office to find Havoc and the others playing around whether than working she seems OK, though I did just have to tell her to go and get some lunch because she working non-stop trying to catch up on her work." Ed nodded that did sound like Riza, she never did like to fall behind on her work.

Ed looked at Roy from his paperwork. "Roy I have a favour to ask you."

"What would that be?" Roy asked, Ed shuffled in his seat.

"Well you see I think that I may have somehow upset Riza without realising it and I was wondering if you could tell me what types of flowers I should get her to tell her that I'm sorry and still love her." Roy frowned, he knew that something was bothering Riza when she came to the office asking if she could go home early because she was feeling unwell. Riza never took a day off even if she had a really bad cold.

"What did you do?" He asked glaring at Ed who bowed his head. "I don't know I just came into the office the other day and she was sat in here like she normally is waiting for me, I noticed that she looked a little pale and asked if she was all right but wouldn't say much other than she was going to ask you if she could go home and left." Ed said he wasn't going to say to much because he wanted to keep what he had planned a secret from everyone so not to spoil it for Riza.

"All right, well roses are usually good, I would probably go for red and pink roses since red mean love and pink means please believe me, alstroemeria's mean devotion so they would be good to put in a bouquet but that is up to you." Roy said Ed looked at him in astonishment.

"How do you know all of this?" He asked, Roy taped his nose. "That is for me to know and you to never find out." He replied standing up and walking to the desk, he picked up Ed's pen and wrote down the number of a good florist that he knows. Roy went to leave the office but stopped as he got to the door. "Oh and Ed?" Ed looked up at him. "Make sure that you don't hurt her again, she's been through enough already, I would hate to see her heart broken." Ed nodded promising that he wouldn't hurt her before Roy left to get back to his office, Ed picked up the phone and dialled the number that Roy had just given him to order his flowers.

The next day Riza was sat at her desk working when someone came into the room holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers. "Is there anyone in here called Riza Hawkeye?" The woman asked looking around the room, Riza looked up from her work.

"Yes that would be me." She said standing up and walking up to the woman who handed the flowers to her. Riza looked surprised, she never expected to ever get sent flowers at work. She signed the form that the woman asked her to sign and put the flowers on her desk. "It's a shame really that I don't own a vase." Riza said sitting down again and looking at the beautiful flowers.

"I could go and find you one if you would like?" Havoc said walking up to her also looking at bouquet, Riza smiled at him. "Thank you Jean that would be nice." She said, Havoc saluted and left to find Riza a vase for her flowers. As Riza looked at the flowers she noticed that there was a note in the centre of them.

'Dear Riza,

I know that I haven't been completely open with you the last couple of weeks and I am sorry for that, I didn't mean to cause you any pain and promise that I love you with all my heart. I hope that you can forgive me for being a fool for hurt you.

Love Ed.'

Riza was almost in tears, she never realised until now how foolish she had been for doubting him, she picked up the flowers and went to see Ed to thank him for the beautiful flowers.

In the corridor near the entrance to the playing grounds stood Ed as if he was waiting for someone. She slowed her pace and watched as Lieutenant Knotts went up to him, they looked like they were talking about something private, she stopped and watched them not wanting to interrupt when she noticed Ed handed her a brown envelope, Emily looked inside of the envelope as if to check the contents of it before putting it in her pocket. Ed then thanked her and walked of back towards his office. Riza was fuming first Ed sends her flowers apologizing to her and then she sees him giving his female subordinate a brown envelope that looked to have money in it, 'What is he up to?' She thought as Emily walked towards her seemingly not seeing her.

"Lieutenant Knotts." She said in a stern voice that made Emily jump to attention.

"What where you and the Colonel doing just now?" She asked with anger and jealously in her voice, Emily was shaking with fear.

"The Colonel was just lending me some money so that I could help my brother, you see he needs to have surgery on his leg and he needs to be moved to a different hospital." Emily said hoping that Riza would believe her, it wasn't like she was lying because her brother did need to have surgery on his leg but he didn't need to be transferred to a different hospital, Riza gave Emily a sceptical look.

"So why is he doing it in secret? I know about Sophie so please don't lie to me."

Emily bowed her head. "I promise Major Hawkeye that I am not lying and neither is the Colonel." Riza glared at the Lieutenant making her squirm.

"Well you had better hope that he tells me the same thing." She said walking off he confront Ed about her suspicions, in the office Ed was on the phone with Al.

"So Al are you still coming for the Christmas party?" He asked leaning back in his leather chair.

"But Brother I thought that only millatery personal could go to the party unless they are on a date with them?" Al said not wanting to get Ed into trouble.

"Don't worry about it Al I asked Fuhrer Grumman and he said that he doesn't mind since everyone knows you anyway." Ed replied, when Riza knocked and opened the door Ed signalled her to come in and sit down.

"Yes Al Riza is OK, she's hear right now." Ed said smiling at her. "How are you and Winry doing? She did? That's great. Yes I know that I need to have my annal check but I can't get any leave at the moment. You will? Thanks Al, well I have to go now OK I will speak to you soon, yeah OK bye." Ed hung up the phone and went to sit next to Riza.

"I didn't expected to see you just yet it's not even lunch time." Ed said giving her a kiss.

"I wanted to thank you for the lovely flowers you sent me." She said holding up said flowers.

"Well I noticed that you seemed a bit upset with me so I thought that I would get you some flowers, though I did have to ask Mustang's advice about what type of flowers to get. He seems to be an expert or something, must be all the girls he's been out with over the years." Ed said giggling, he imagined Roy standing with a florist and talking to her about flowers and other feminine things, Riza didn't look to amused.

"You know woman love a man with a soft sensitive side." Ed was still giggling.

"Yeah I know but it's still fun imagining him doing that kind of thing, especially with the way he acts at work." Ed stopped giggling seeing that Riza wasn't to happy with him.

'She's in a bad mood again, but why? What have I done this time?' He thought to himself.

"Riza is everything all right?" He asked her with concern, he didn't like seeing Riza like this.

"I just saw you and Lieutenant Knotts near the playing ground doors. You gave her something in a brown envelope." Riza said giving Ed a questioning look.

"I was lending her some money so that she can transferrer her brother to a different hospital so that he can have his operation." Ed replied, Riza started to feel guilty.

"But then why all the secrecy?" Riza asked confused. "Because she doesn't want anyone else to know, she's afraid that if people knew then she would be treated differently and she doesn't want to be pitted." Riza nodded in understanding, she was the same, she didn't like to be pitted about anything that has happened to her.

"OK Ed I'm sorry for questioning you, I don't know what's been wrong with me the last couple of days." Ed gave her a reassuring hug.

"It's OK I would probably act in the same way, I know that I have been secretive and I know that I have been making you feel a little insecure. That's why I sent you the flowers to ask if you would forgive me." Riza gave Ed a passionate kiss. "Yes Ed of course I will forgive you." Ed's smile grow, he was happy that Riza was happy.

"Oh I almost forgot, Winry and Al are coming to the Christmas party next week and Winry was wondering if you could take her shopping on Saturday for dresses whilst Al and I go to see Sophie about her alchemy?"

"Yes I would be happy to, but why is Al going with you to go see Sophie? I thought that she didn't want anyone else to know."

"She doesn't but when I told her about Al she was more than happy to allow him to come as well, and it means that you do n't have to worry about me being alone with her."

"I see it could be because you two were both famous back when you used to travel." Riza said, she held up the flowers and smelled them.

"So do you like them?" Ed asked looking at them. "Yes I do Ed they are lovely. What is this flower called?" She asked pointing to one of the white and pink flowers.

"Those are called alstroemeria's according to Mustang they mean devotion." Riza gave Ed another kiss this time more loving and soft. They where sat there cuddling when Havoc came into the office.

"Ah there you are Lieutenant, the General was wondering where you had gone." He said seeing the two, Riza stood up and walked to the door.

"Don't wait up for me later I will probably be staying a little later tonight so that I can catch up on my work." Riza said as she left the office, Ed went and sat back at his desk and finished of his work before heading home at the end of the day.

"Good work everyone I will see you all tomorrow, I will give Dr Marco a ring when I get home for you Major, and can let me know when you have got what I asked for Lieutenant." Wright and Knotts nodded as Ed left the office leaving Major Wright to lock up.

In Roy's office Riza sat at one of the small tables in his office and went through the work she needed to get done, Roy smiled a Riza's devotion to her work. "You know Riza you can finish them off tomorrow, no-one is going to blame you for being off when you where sick." He said putting his last form on the complete pile, Riza shrugged.

"I know but I want to get it done." She replied sorting through her small pile of work, Roy shook his head. "Riza what's wrong? You aren't usually like this, I know that you like to keep you with your work but you aren't that behind." He said concerned, he knows that Ed had upset her but he didn't know what he had done. Riza put her pen down and sighed, she knew that Roy would keep asking her until she told him.

"I found a piece of paper with a girls name and number on it on Ed's desk, when I asked him about it he said that she is an alchemist who wants his opion on her alchemy to see if it could be used for the millatery." She said looking at Roy with sad and confused eyes. "When I reseved his flowers I went to go to thank him for them and found him standing near the playing ground doors talking to his female subordinate Lieutenant Knotts and giving her an envelope with money in it. When I asked them both about it they said that she needed the money so that her brother could be transferred to a different hospital but I'm not fully convinced, I think that they are both up to something." She continued, Roy frowned deep in thought.

"It does sound suspious but I don't think that Ed would do anything like that, he isn't the type." Riza looked Roy in the eyes. "How can you be so sure?" She asked surprised that Roy was defending Ed. "Because I know those types of guys, not forget at I am a womaniser, I know had to spot it when people are cheating on their boyfriends or in this case girlfriend and Ed isn't. I mean do you think that I would allow Ed to do that to you?" He asked Riza who shook her head, she knew that if Ed it do anything likr that that Roy would be the first to teach him a lesson.

"Don't worry about it, I sure that he is telling the truth, ad if he isn't then maybe he might be planning a surprise for you."

"Your right Roy thanks." Roy and Riza finished what they where doing and headed home for the night. Riza got home and took Hayate out for his walk looking forward to seeing Winry and going shopping with her.

**Thanks hope you enjoyed. Has anyone figured out what's going on or are you as confused as Riza? If you are then don't worry all will be revealed soon. Please review and let me know what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything**

The next day at the office Roy came in and picked up the phone. "Hello Lisa how are you this morning?" Roy asked her in his usual flirty voice. "I'm fine thank you Roy, how are you?"

"I'm all right, how do you feel about going out again this Saturday night?" He asked her, he needed to talk to her about his feelings.

"I would be happy to, where will you be taking me this time?" She asked Roy who became very nervous.

"I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner at my place?" He asked with uncertainness in his voice. Lisa giggled at him.

"Is the famous woman's man of Central nervous about asking me to his house for dinner?" She asked amused with the fact that Roy was scared of asking her out.

"No it's not that it's just...well..."

"Don't worry about it Roy I'm only joking, I would love to have dinner at your place." She said reassuring him. "where do you live?"

"I will get someone to pick you up at seven." Roy said feeling a bit more relaxed.

"OK I look forward to it, bye Roy."

"Goodbye Lisa have a good day." He said as he hung up the phone, 'now I need to think of something to cook.' He thought to himself wondering what she would like to have.

'If only a knew how to cook, wait I know.' Roy got up from his chair and left his office.

"Sir where are you going?" Riza asked when she saw Roy leaving the office. "I'm just going to see someone about a favour I'll be back soon." He replied walking out of the office.

In Ed's office Emily was showing Ed the thing that she had picked up for him to make sure it is the right one. "Is this the one you wanted Colonel?"

"Yes it's perfect, did I give you enough for it or do I owe you?" He asked reaching for his wallet. "It was the exacted amount Sir, I must say you have good taste."

"Thank you Lieutenant, now I am going to ask you for another favour. Could you look after it for me until everything is ready?"

"Off course Colonel I will take it home with me for safe keeping."

"Thank you Emily I don't know what I would have done without your help." Ed said smiling fondle at her, Emily was about to reply when Roy walked in the room.

"Sorry I'm not interrupting anything I'm I?" He asked seeing Emily standing in front of Ed's desk, Ed stood up and saluted to Roy with Emily.

"No General Mustang Sir we was just discussing the Lieutenants progress and how she feels with being under my command." Ed replied knowing that Emily would be able to play along.

"I see and how does the Lieutenant feel? I hear that Colonel Elric has been giving you some help with your personal problems." Roy asked trying to catch them of guard.

"The Colonel is a really good superior officer who is very considerate of our problems and personal issues. It is true that Colonel Elric lent my some money the other day to help my brother, to which I am completely grateful." Emily replied calmly, Ed was impressed with Emily's silver tongue.

"I'm glade to hear it, not that I had my doubts." Roy said sitting down on the couch, Emily saluted Ed and Roy before leaving the office.

"No General Mustang Sir? What is that all about Ed?" Roy asked trying not to laugh, Ed glared at him.

"Well I have to look good in front of my subordinates, wouldn't want to give them the wrong impression now do I." Ed replied, Roy stopped laughing.

"Yeah I know, I just didn't expect you to really salute me." Roy said causing Ed to glare even more at the General. "I do salute you, you cheeky bastard, and here I was being nice to you."

"OK OK I'm sorry Ed I didn't mean to insult you." Roy said apologizing to Ed.

"So what are you doing here? Has Grumman ask you to keep an eye on my to make sure I don't screw up again?" Ed asked giving Roy a suspicious look.

"No no nothing like that, I just came to ask for a favour."

"And what makes you think that I'm going to help you?" Ed said giving Roy an evil grin.

"Because you owe me for helping you with the flowers the other day." Roy retorted giving Ed his signature smirk.

"OK so what do you want?" Ed asked hoping that it wasn't going to be something like, could he lend him some money because he's a little short.

"I was wondering if you had a recipe book I could borrow for Saturday?" He asked.

"Why do you need a cook book? I thought you are the womaniser of Central?" Ed asked in a mocking voice.

"Because I have never had a girl over for dinner before, I usually take them out to dinner."

"So why do you need a cook book? Why can't you take her out like you usually do?"

"Because it isn't going to be an ordinary date OK Fullmetal, now do you have one or not?" Roy said getting annoyed with all of Ed's questions.

"I don't owe one but Al and Winry do, I could give them a call and ask if they could bring it with them when they come tomorrow." Ed said leaning in his chair like Roy used to.

"If you could I would really appreciate it." Roy said standing up to leave, Ed picked up the phone to call Al.

The rest of the day went really quickly and Roy was soon putting on his coat to head home. "All right I'm of home but before I go there isn't anything else I need to look at is there?" Roy asked "No Sir there isn't you can go home." Replied Riza who was tidying up her desk ready for the next day, Roy left the office to walk home.

On the way out of HQ Roy saw Ed waiting for Riza. "Hey Fullmetal, you waiting for Hawkeye?" He asked him, Ed turned to see Roy walking towards him. "Yeah I am, has she finished?"

"Yeah she won't be long, did you manage to get hold of Al?" Roy asked hoping that he wouldn't have to get take out instead, he really wants to impress Lisa.

"No, I rang Winry's auto-mail shop but her assistant said that she and Al had already left. But I'm sure that Al could write you down a recipe for you when he gets here, what kind of meal did you have in mind?"

"I was hoping for something simple and easy to cook, but that is really romantic as well." Roy said looked at the snow outside.

"Wow this must be really series if you are going to all this trouble, who is she?" Ed asked curious, he had never see Roy get like this for one of his dates.

"You now the girl I left with that Friend we all went out?" Roy answered grinning, Ed couldn't believe it Roy had been seeing this girl for nearly a month. Ed was about to ask Roy more questions about the girl when Riza came walking up to them.

"General I thought you had already left." She said surprised to see Roy talking to Ed.

"Yeah I was just asking Fullmetal about the favour I asked him to do for me earlier." Roy replied, he put his scarf on and stepped out into the snow followed by Ed and Riza.

"How is your auto-mail doing? I know that they tend to ache when it's cold." Riza asked Ed concerned, she had seen how painful it can for him when the temperature drops.

"It's aching a bit but it's not to bad, Winry said that she is going to change my auto-mail for me in the winter so that way it will be more manageable for me and more comfortable." Ed said rubbing his right arm, Riza hugged him close as they walked to shelter him from the cold.

"That's good, so does that mean that you are going to have to types of auto-mail now?" She asked, Ed nodded.

"Yeah, I will have my normal one that I have during the other months and then I will have my special one that is specially made for cold conditions." Ed replied, Roy smirked.

"I guest she must really like you Ed for her to go to all of this trouble." Roy said a huge grin on his face.

"Actually it something that she thought of for all of her clients that live in place that have the weather change like here in central, she has customers from all over the country to have her auto-mail fitted." Ed said with pride for his best friend, he always knew that she would do well if she started her own business. They kept on walking when they came to a cross road.

"Well this is where we part I will see you tomorrow Riza, bye Fullmetal let me know when Al has arrived so that I can ask him for a recipe OK." Ed nodded and waved goodbye to him before he and Riza headed towards her apartment to walk her home before heading home himself.

When Roy got home he hung up his coat and took his shoes off before going upstairs to change into something more comfortable. He went into his room and pulled out a shirt that he normally wears in the house and some comfortable indoor trousers. He hung up his uniform ready for the next day and went downstairs to make himself something to eat, he went into the kitchen and looked in the fridge and took out some left over Xinginess food that he had ordered out the day before and sat down at the table.

'This place really needs tidying before Lisa comes on Saturday' Roy thought as he sat eating and looking around the room. There where dirty plates and cups on the sides, the oven looked like it hadn't been cleaned for awhile and the floor needed mopping. Roy shook his head, he had really started to become a slob at home.

'How long has it been since I cleaned this place?' Roy finished what he was eating and throw the container into the bin that also looked like it needed changing. Roy went into the living room and looked around the room. This room faired no differently, there were dirty plates, knifes and forks on the coffee table and clothes slung on the back of the couch. Books where scattered everywhere and it looked like he hadn't dusted or sweep up in a while. Roy signed he was going to have a busy day one Saturday, he rolled up his sleeves and picked up the plates of the table the take into the kitchen to start washing up.

Ed was really excited, he hadn't see his brother for awhile and looked forward to seeing him. He sat in his office and signed away at his work not wanting to waste an time, he had been down to see Fuhrer Grumman to ask if he could finish a little early so that he could meet Winry and Al at the train station and was told that if he finished his work before three then he could go and meet them when there train came in at four. There was a knock on his door and he looked up to ask them in.

"Hello Edward it's been a long time." Marco said walking into the office, Ed stood up to greet the man who had helped him save Amestris.

"Hi Dr Marco how have you been?" Ed asked signalling for him to sit down.

"I've been fine thank you, got my own doctors surgery again now that I don't have to hide." Marco said sitting down on the couch.

"So I see that you are a Colonel now, I'm surprised that you stayed in the millatery I thought that you would have left."

"Yeah you and everyone else, but I decided to stay because I felt that I could do more good here now that we have a new leader." Ed replied signing his name on a form.

"So you said that one of your subordinates wants some help with his research?" Marco asked.

"Yes he is working on a way to be able to heal broken bones whilst on the battle field." Ed replied standing up and walking to his office door.

"Major Wright I have someone here that I would like you to meet." Ed said looking at Susumu Wright who stood up and came into the office.

"Major this Dr Tim Marco, Marco meet Major Susumu Wright." Ed said introducing them to each other.

"Nice to meet you Major, the Colonel has told me that you are researching bio-alchemy and would like so advice?" Marco said shaking the excited man's hand.

"Yes I am, it's an honour to meet you Dr Marco." Susumu said not believing that Dr Marco had come to help him, he had heard so much about him and he was one of the top doctors in the country.

"Thank you it's good to see that there are good honest alchemist out there, and you don't have to keep calling me doctor it's Tim." Marco said with a smile.

"All right Tim and you can call me Susumu." Susumu replied, Marco looked as if he was in deep thought. "Susumu? That's a Xinginess name isn't it?"

"Yes my mother in Xinginess and my farther is Amestrian." He replied to Marco's question.

"Major Wright has been able to successfully combined alchemy and rendanshu." Ed said with pride, Susumu blushed with embarrassment.

"Anyway am sure that you two have lots to discuss so I have booked a room in the library for you so that you can have some privacy." Ed said with a smile.

"Thank you Edward, well let's get going so that he can get his work done, you can tell me more when we get there." Susumu thanked Ed again before he and Marco left for the library. Ed sat back at is desk to continue signing his forms eager to see Al and Winry.

At four o'clock Ed and Riza stood at the train station waiting for Al's train to arrive. "Relax Ed, I'm sure that it will be here soon." Riza said trying to calm the eager Colonel. Soon enough the train pulled into the station and people started getting of meeting with their friends and family, Ed looked around trying to spot his brother in the crowed.

"Hey Brother." Al shouted jumping at Ed and knocking him to the floor, Winry walked up behind them trying not to laugh at the man for acting like a child.

"Hey Al could you let me up? The floor is very uncomfortable." Ed said trying to stand up with his brother on top of him. "Oh sorry Brother." Al said helping Ed to stand up again, he turned to Riza and gave her a smile.

"Hello Major, how are you? My Brother hasn't been causing you any trouble I hope." Al said giving Riza a hug, Ed frown at him. "Hey I don't cause trouble." He said annoyed, everyone just laughed. They all walked out of the station and went to Ed's apartment.

"So I see that you are living in the same apartment then Ed." Winry said as she took of her coat and hung it up with the others.

"Yeah I just never really thought about moving." Ed admitted going into the kitchen to make everyone a drink. "What would you like, I have tea, coffee, some orange juice left if you want something cold?" Ed asked his guests.

"Tea would be nice thank you." Al and Winry said sitting down on the couch, Ed made three teas and one coffee for Riza and put them on the coffee table. "Would you both like anything to eat? I think that I have some bacon pasta left if you want some?" Al shook his head. "No thank you brother we will be all right until dinner." Al replied drinking his tea, Winry gave Ed a grin.

"So Ed what are you making us for dinner?" Winry asked knowing that he wouldn't have anything prepared.

"Well you see I was thinking that we could all go out for dinner, I hear that we have something to celebrate." Ed replied making Riza look at him in surprise. "What? You has something to celebrate? Ed are you keeping secrets from me again?" She asked getting annoyed that she didn't know what was going on.

"I don't know, Al only told me that Winry has an announcement to make when she gets here." Ed said giving Winry a look that said 'spill it'.

"I'll tell you all over dinner OK." Winry said grinning. They all sat drinking there warm drinks and talking about how everything has been for all of them.

"Oh that reminds me, the General asked me to ask you if you could let him borrow one of your recipe books or maybe write one down for him for his date on Saturday." Ed asked Al who thought for a moment trying to thing of the perfect meal for a date.

"Did he say what he had in mind?"

"No he just said that he wants something easy to make." Ed explained hoping that it would make it easier for Al.

"I have just the thing, it's a simple recipe that I came up when I was thinking of something to do for mine and Winry's first date." Al said, asking his brother if he could borrow the house phone.

"Does anyone know the General's number?" He asked holding the phone, Riza told Al Roy's number making everyone give her a funny look.

"What? Who do you think rings him if he's late or hasn't come into work?" She replied, Al dialled the number and waited for Roy to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hello General Mustang this is Al, Ed told me that you would like a recipe for a date on Saturday." He said to Roy.

"Yes I am, I hope that you can help me?" Roy asked nervously.

"Yes I have the perfect meal for you, it's called Lamb with watermelon salad. Do you have a pen and paper with you?" Al told Roy the recipe and the ingredients that he would need. "Thanks Al you are a life saver." Roy said hanging up the phone, Al put the phone down and sat down next to Winry.

"Have you decided where you are taking us to for dinner?" Al asked his brother, Ed thought about it for a moment before having an idea.

"How about we go to that small restaurant that you liked when you came last time?" Ed asked his Brother who looked at Winry to see what she thought.

"That sounds good." Winry said standing up, they all waited for Ed and Riza to get changed, (because she sometimes stays over on weekends) and went to the restaurant.

When they got to the restaurant Ed found them all a table and helped Riza with her chair as Al did the same for Winry before sitting down himself. He handed Riza the menu so that she and Winry could order what they want whist he and his brother looked at the wine list.

"Brother I don't think that it is a good idea to be drinking wine if we will be going out tomorrow." Al said looking at the wine list, Ed frowned.

"It's not like we are going to get drunk on a glass of wine at dinner Al." Ed said deciding what wine they would be having with there dinner. The waiter came over and asked them if they where ready to order.

"Excuse me sir, do you do soft drinks here?" Al asked the waiter causing Ed to glare at him.

"Yes we do sir, we have orange juice, pineapple juice, apple juice or passion fruit juice" The waiter said as he wrote down everyone's order.

"Could you get me a pineapple juice please." Al said, the waiter wrote the order down and asked everyone else what the would like to drink.

"Could we have a bottle of your best white wine please" Ed asked the waiter.

"Could I have a pineapple wine spritzer please." Winry asked.

They sat there talking until their dinners and drinks came, Ed pored himself and Riza a glass of wine.

"So Winry what's this big news? We can't wait any longer." Riza asked not wanting to wait any more.

"OK well you all know about the auto-mail contest? Well I entered with a prototype of Ed's new winter model and I won." Winry said excited, everyone all cheered.

"That's great Winry."

"Congratulations."

"That's not all, they where so impressed with my new model that they want me to write an article in the weekly auto-mail magazine." Winry said taking a sip of her drink.

"Wow that's even better than you winning the contest." Ed said raising his glass. "To Winry for achieving her goal."

"To Winry." Everyone said raising their glasses and having a drink, they all sat and ate there meals.

"Um this is a really nice combination, here try some Al." Winry said offering him her drink, Al hesitated before taking a sip of the drink.

"Yeah your right Winry this is nice." Al agreed handing Winry her drink back.

"What's wrong with you Al? There isn't anything wrong with having a drink every once in a while." Ed said eating his dinner, Al shrugged.

"There's nothing wrong, I just don't want to have a drink that's all. Why is there something wrong with me wanting to eat me meal with a drink of pineapple juice?" Al retorted, Ed gave Al a sceptical look.

"No it's just that you seem to be afraid to drink it that's all, I mean it's not like you haven't had wine before."

"Yeah I know, I guess that I'm afraid that I might drink to much and embarrass myself like I did that night we went out with the gang that time." Al said remembering waking up the next day feeling really sick and when he went into HQ with Ed that morning so that Ed could hand in a report to the Fuhrer who was Armstrong at the time, ended up getting slapped in front of everyone because he had said something to one of the female soldiers that works with Ed the previous night, he was so embarrassed that he stayed in Ed's apartment for two days before Winry encouraged him to come out. Ed gave Al a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about it everyone does something stupid when they get drunk, hell I almost got into a fight with someone because he called me young, which I translated to him calling me small. It took Havoc, Breada and Roy to pull me off of the guy, Roy had to apologiser to the man and bought him another drink to convince him to forgive me and not get me bared from the place." Ed said remembering the long lecture he got the next day about controlling his temper and not destroying public property.

"Yeah I remember that day, I had to try and convince Roy to not burn you to a crisp for the trouble that you had caused, it took me to agree to punish you instead of him to stop him from doing what he wanted." Riza said, Ed looked at her with gratitude, Roy would have seriously hurt him if it wasn't for Riza.

"But what if I do something stupid again? I don't think I can trust myself." Al said, he didn't like insulting people and upsetting them like he had done that night, Ed signed.

"Al if you can't trust yourself then trust me all right, I would never let anything happen to you OK, your my little brother." Al smiled at his brother.

"OK Ed pour me a glass of wine." Ed did what Al asked and poured him a glass of wine, they sat and talked until they had finished there meals. Ed paid the waiter after arguing about who was going to pay and left to walk home.

It was Saturday morning and Roy was up early tidying his apartment ready for Lisa coming over that evening. "Right I have done the washing up, mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned the oven, put my clothes and books away. Now what else do I need to do?" Roy said to himself looking around the room, he was happy with downstairs and was about to go upstairs when someone knocked on the door.

"Hey Roy how are things?" Maes said walking into Roy's house, Roy signed with annoyance every time he had something big planned Maes has to come over to see how he was doing.

"Hello Maes, I'm fine just tidying up the house for when Lisa comes over later. How about you? I thought that you had something planned for today?" Roy said hoping to make Maes leave so that he can carry on with his chores.

"I do but that isn't till later. Do you need any help? Do you what me to help you clean up?" Maes asked making Roy glare at him.

"Why don't you think I'm capable or something?" Roy retorted, Maes gave him a hurt expression.

"Like I would ever think that. I just know how important this is to you and I want to help you to make it perfect." Maes answered, Roy smiled at his best friend.

"Thanks Maes, I was about to go upstairs to check the bathroom." Roy looked at the time on his watch.

"You don't think you could take some of my clothes to be washed for me whilst I finish tidying up here?" Roy asked Maes who nodded his head, Roy went to his hamper and bagged some of the clothes that needed to be washed and handed them to Maes.

"Thanks Maes." Roy said going back downstairs to open the door for Maes and gave him his spear key so that he could let himself in when he got back. When Maes left Roy went upstairs to tidy up the bathroom so that it would be presentable when Lisa came.

Mean while Ed, Al, Winry and Riza went into town so that they could go shopping, they walked until they came across the silver moon café where Ed and AL was meeting Sophie for there "alchemy" meeting.

"OK this shouldn't take long, where do you won't to meet and what time?" Ed asked Riza and Winry.

"Why don't we meet back here for lunch." Riza suggested, Ed nodded his head. "All right so we will all meet here at half twelve for lunch." Ed said checking his pocket watch, Riza and Winry said goodbye to Ed and Al, and went to do there girlie shopping for the Christmas party. Ed and Al didn't have to wait long until a young lady came over to there table.

"Excuse me are you two the Elric Brothers?" She asked them smiling.

"Yes we are. I'm Edward and This is my brother Alphonse." Ed said holding out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, I am Sophie Thomson." She said shaking Ed and Al's hand before sitting down at the table.

"Would you like a drink Miss Thomson?" Al asked standing up to go and get them all a drink. "That would be lovely Alphonse, could you get me a tea please." She answered, Al went to get three cups of teas before they all sat and talked about Ed's plans for the party.

Back at Roy's house, Roy had just finished mopping his bathroom floor and was getting rid of the dirt water, when Maes came back with his now clean clothes.

"Here you go Roy all clean, where do you want me to but them?" Maes asked.

"You can put them on the couch for now Maes, I'll sort them out later. Do you want a cup of coffee?" Roy asked going into the kitchen so that he could make himself something to eat.

"No thanks I should be getting home so that I can help her practice for her school play." Maes said heading towards the door.

"OK thanks Maes for the help even if it was doing my laundry for me, I really appreciate it." Roy said seeing Maes to the door.

"That's all right Roy what are friends for. Oh before I forget, Elisha wants to know if her Uncle Roy can come and see her play with us?" Maes asked, Roy smiled even though he does find is friend annoying at times he still loved to see his "Niece and Nephew".

"I would love to Maes, when is it so that I can write it down on my calender."

"It's this Thursday, If you want we could pick you up."

"That would be great just let me know what time and I will make sure I'm wearing my best suit." Roy answered.

"OK we will pick you up at six. I'll see you at work Roy and good luck for tonight." Maes said before leaving to head home to see his family. Roy grabbed himself something to eat before calling his personnel driver to ask him to pick up Lisa at seven, next he picked up the paper that he wrote the ingredients on the night before so that he could go and pick up his shopping for that evening.

Back in town Winry and Riza where talking about the party and what they think they should wear.

"I've never been to a party like this, what do people normally wear?" Winry asked as she looked at all the dresses.

"What ever you like, what do you feel comfortable in?" Riza asked looking at the different style of dresses.

"I like ones that are short, I always find that I end up tripping up in a long dress." Winry said not seeing anything that she likes. They tried a few other dress shops until they came across a shop the Riza hadn't seen before, they went in to have a look and saw that this shop had arrange of different types of dresses for different occasions. Riza saw a shop assistant and went up to her.

"Excuse me Miss could you help us?" She asked the young girl.

"Yes I can, how may I help you?" She asked with a smile.

"We are looking for two dresses for a Christmas party." Riza said, the shop assistant nodded.

"What kind of dresses are you looking for short or long?"

"My friend here is looking for a short dress." The assistant looked at Winry and thought for a moment before walking up to a dress and held it up.

"I think that this would go perfect with you complexion." She was holding up a beautiful coral coloured floral corsage dress.

"This unique dress is the ultimate princess dress. With beautiful floral detail and floaty fabric, this unique dress has a romantic and luxurious style." The assistant said, Winry fell in love with it.

"AAAWWWW it's perfect, I'll take it." She said taking the dress."

"I'm glade you like it and how about you Miss?" The woman asked turning to Riza.

"I'm looking for a long dress." Riza said, the assistant looked at Riza like she did with Winry and again pulled out a dress that went with her complexion and eye colour.

"This is a Chiffon Sweetheart Strapless Neckline with Emplire Slim Column Sheath Skirt and Elegant Slit Evening Gown." The assistant said holding up a beautiful long gold dress.

"I love it." Riza said, they both bought there dresses and asked the woman if she knew a good place to by shoes. "I know a excellent shoe shop. If you go down this street it's across the road on the right, it called Starshine shoe's." She said pointing in the direction Winry and Riza went to the shop to buy their shoes to go with their dresses.

At the café Ed and Al had finished their discussion with Sophie and was thinking of what they should do before meeting up with Riza and Winry, Ed checked his pocket watch.

"It's eleven thirty, what should we do for an hour before meeting up with the girls?" He asked his brother.

"We could have a look around the shops for a while, have you got everything you need for Friday?" Al asked Ed who thought for a moment before answering.

"I just need to get a new casual suit for the party, my old one has gotten too small and last year I wore my uniform with Riza because I couldn't get a new one in time." Ed said, they went of to look for a men's clothes shop to try and find a suit for Ed.

Near to where Ed and Al were, Roy was walking down the road after parking his millatery car looking for the grocery shop, he walked into one and saw Lisa standing behind the counter. Not wanting to be seen he turned around and went to leave when Lisa shouted at him.

"Hi Roy what brings you here?" She said happy to see him, Roy could believe his luck, out of all the shops in Central he had to walk into it had to be hers when he was trying to keep everything a surprise.

"Hi Lisa I was just in town and I thought that I would come and visit you." Roy said hoping that she wouldn't realise that he was shopping for her.

"Awww how sweet of you." She said giving him a hug.

"Lisa have you put the fresh vegetables out yet?" Came a male voice from the back.

"Yes dad." She shouted back, she gave Roy a kiss thanking him for coming to see her.

"Lisa what are you doing? Your supposed to be working not kissing every guy you meet." Her farther said stepping out of the back room.

"But dad this is the guy I was telling you and mum about." Lisa said holding Roy's hand.

"What you mean the General from the Ishbalain war? I thought that I told you that I don't want you to have anything to do with the millatery or alchemists, especially with a murderer like him." Her dad said pointing at Roy who started to feel really guilty about what he had done.

"Dad I'm not a child any more I'm a grown woman." Lisa protested, but her dad wasn't listening.

"Do you what the same thing to happen to you that happened to my sister, your aunt Claire?" Lisa borrowed her head. "No farther I don't."

"Then you will listen to me and will not go out with this murderer." He said to his daughter who went into the back room angry with the farther who won't stop controlling her life.

"And you, you stay away from my daughter understand." Roy said nothing, he walked out to the shop and drove back home angry and upset with the way people react when they find out who he is and what he had done in Ishbal.

**Thanks for reading next chapter will be the big reveal. Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything**

When Roy got home he was that pissed of at what Lisa's father had said, that he started to trash up his house that he hadn't long moved into because Grumman told him that it would make him look better as a General. He knocked off his pictures of the shelf, throw stuff around the room and smashed his coffee table. 'Why is it that people still look at me and see a monster.' Roy thought smashing a small Xinginese statue of a dragon that Vanessa who works in Madam Christmas' bar had given him.

'Damn Vanessa got me that when she went to Xing during our battle with Farther.' Roy said picking up the pieces and putting them on a piece of cloth. He finished picking up the pieces and warped up he cloth so that he wouldn't loose them. For the rest of the evening Roy sat by the phone drinking a glassd of whisky waiting for Lisa to call him, but she never did, so Roy spent the whole weekend drinking and moping around the house.

On Monday Roy went into work with a massive hang over. He walked into his office and sat at his desk ignoring everyone in the outer office as he past them.

"Good morning Sir." Riza said bringing Roy a cup of coffee, she could always tell when he had a hang over. Roy just sat there and didn't answer her.

"I take it that you had a good time this weekend?" Riza asked hoping to get something out of him, Roy just grunted at the question.

"Roy are you all right?" Riza asked with concern, Roy looked at her with hollow eyes.

"No Riza I'm not." Roy said putting his head in his arms.

"What happened Sir?" Riza asked him but Roy said nothing he just laid there with his eyes closed like he was going to go to sleep. "Sir?"

"If you don't mind Lieutenant I would rather not talk about it." Roy said sitting up and looked at the papers on his desk. Riza nodded in understanding, she turned around and left the office leaving Roy to mope in peace.

In Ed's office Griffen stood in front of Ed's desk talking to the young Colonel.

"So Second Lieutenant Griffen, how has it been working with me?" Ed asked wanting to make sure that all of his men where happy with his command.

"I am happy to be working under you Sir." Griffen said standing at attention, Ed smiled at the his Second Lieutenant. "I'm glade to hear it. How are you finding your duties?"

"I am happy with the duties that you have assigned to me, though I would like to try and improve with my combat skills for if we go on another mission." Nelson said, Ed nodded.

"I understand, though it might be awhile before we get given another mission. I would be happy to train you and the others to help improve with your combat skills."

"Thank you Colonel." Griffen said saluting, Ed dismissed he and called in Second Lieutenant Todds.

"Second Lieutenant Michael Todds reporting as ordered Sir." He said standing in front of the Colonel.

"Second Lieutenant, as you have probably heard from the others I am checking to see how you all are doing after spending six months under my command and if you have any suggestions that you feel would benefit the team?" Ed asked Michael.

"Well Sir I am glad to be under your command, I feel that you are honest with us and look out for our best interest which is a good trait to have in a commanding officer." Michael said causing Ed to become embarrassed.

"Thank you Michael I appreciate your honesty." Ed said composing himself, he didn't want to look weak in front of the men.

"To answer your other question Colonel, I feel that we would all benefit from learning first aid so that if we are on a mission and one of us gets hurt then we would be able to help them until we are able to get them to a hospital, and not just us but to also help a civilian if they are hurt." Michael said giving Ed his idea.

"That is a good idea, even though we have Major Wright on our team we may end up in a situation where we have to split up again. OK I will talk to the Fuhrer to see if he can arrange for us all to have first aid training." Ed said writing the idea down to take to Grumman later.

"Is there anything else that you can think of?" Ed asked wanting to make sure that his team had everything that they needed.

"No Colonel Elric that is everything that I can think of."

"OK well if you think of anything else don't hesitate to come and see me." Ed said, Michael saluted and left the office. Ed stood up from his desk and went to the Führer's office to talk about the ideas that he and his team have. He knocked on the door and went into the office.

"Good morning Colonel Elric." Grumman said polishing one of his beaver statue.

"Good morning Sir, if you don't mind I have spoken to my team this morning and have some ideas to share with you." Ed said standing in front of Grumman's desk.

"Of course Colonel, why don't you sit down." Ed sat down on the chair that he moved in front of the Führer's desk.

"So what are these ideas that you have for me?" Grumman asked putting his beaver statue on it's shelve.

"Well Sir my subordinates and I feel that we would all benefit from having first aid training for when we are in the field." Ed said, Grumman raised his eyebrow.

"But don't you have Major Wright for that?"

"Yes Sir but if the team had to split up or Major Wright was the one that was hurt then none of the others would know what to do." Ed explained to the Fuhrer.

"I see, that does seem like a good idea." Grumman said thinking about it.

"Yes Sir and I feel that it's not just my team that would benefit from this training, I think that every unit should have at least one or two people in it that has that kind of training, it would reduce the fatality rates and would be good for field missions." Ed said hoping that Grumman wouldn't see it as a waste of money.

"I agree, I don't know why no-one else didn't came up with this sooner." Grumman said sounding impressed. "What are your other ideas?"

"Well Sir due to the failure of our first mission I feel that my team would benefit from doing mock missions as training so that they can learn and be ready for anything on a real mission." Ed said reading his list. "Also some of the men wish to improve on their combat skills." Ed finished looking at Grumman who gave Ed a smile.

"It looks like you and your men and woman have had a good chat, I'm happy that you have all learn from your mistakes and are trying to improve yourselves and I'm glad to see that you are taking your roll as a commanding officer seriously." Grumman said with pride. "I agree with what you have said and will arrange for everyone to have this special training." Grumman said, Ed smiled at the Fuhrer.

"Thank you Sir." Grumman dismissed Ed and continued to polish his ornaments, whist Ed when back to his office. The rest of the day went by quickly and soon everyone was going home. Roy who had been depressed all day put on his coat and left the office without saying a word. He left HQ and started heading home when Hughes came running up to him.

"Hey Roy wait up." He shout trying to catch up to his friend, Roy just kept on walking.

"Sorry I didn't come to see you to day it's been really busy, how did your date go with Lisa on Saturday?" Maes asked finally catching up to Roy and walking beside him, Roy said nothing.

"Roy? Did something happened?" Maes asked concerned, he knew how much Roy was looking forward to this date and would hate to hear that he had been turned down again. Roy sighed, he stopped and turned to face Hughes with sorrow in his eyes that confirmed Maes' suspicions.

"I met her dad on Saturday whilst I was shopping for the dinner I was going to cook her, apparently he doesn't like alchemists or the millatery and told her that she is to have nothing more to do with me." Roy explained, Maes gave Roy a sympathetic look.

"I sorry to hear that Roy, but surely that wouldn't stop her from seeing you. From what you have told me she is a strong willed woman who wouldn't listen to what someone else has to say about you."

"He called me a murderer in front of her, he knows who I am and about what I did in Ishval." Roy said bowing his head in shame.

"Roy you aren't the only one that committed that sin, there's me, Hawkeye, Dr. Marco, Dr. Knocks, we all committed a terrible sin during that god damn war." Maes said remembering the horrors that they all had to face and the orders that they where all force to obey.

"I thought that she might of called me so that we could talk about it, but I haven't heard from her since Saturday in her families shop." Maes thought about what Roy had just said.

"Maybe she was hoping that you would fight for her and try to convince her dad that you aren't such a bad man." Maes said trying to see it from her point of view.

"I think that if you went to talk to her dad and ask if you could take his daughter to the Christmas party that will show them how devoted you are to his daughter." Roy thought about this for a moment. "Your right Hughes, I am going to go down there right now and ask Mr Swan if I can go out with Lisa." Roy said, he went to borrow a millatery car and drove down to the Swan's shop to talk to Mr Swan. He parked the car outside the shop and went into the shop seeing that they where getting ready to close up.

"What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay away from my daughter." Mr Swan said with anger in his voice, Roy stayed calm and walked up to the angry man.

"I came here because I wanted to talk to you if I may?" Roy asked causing Lisa's dad to laugh.

"What makes you think that I want to talk to a murdering alchemist like you?" He said taking the money out of the till to but in the safe.

"I know that you may have heard some horrible stories about what happened in Ishval, but I am not the man that everyone sees me as. I didn't kill those Ishbalans because I wanted to, I did it because I was ordered too." Roy explained.

"Really so the fact that you used your alchemy to burn them poor people to death was because you was ordered too?" Mr Swan asked Roy who didn't falter.

"Look that is something that happened in the past, I am not proud of what I did and have done everything I can to redeem myself for what I did." Just as Roy was talking Lisa came into the shop and walked up to him.

"Dad why can't you just give him a chance?" Lisa said defending Roy who was shocked that she was standing with him after what he had just admitted.

"Lisa I told you I don't want you to go out with anyone like him, he's dangerous, you know what he did in Ishval."

"Yes I do and I don't care, he just said that he regrets what he did. What ever happened to forgiven people for their sins?"

"Sir I promise you that I would never do anything to hurt your daughter I care for her to much." Roy turned to face Lisa.

"Miss Swan will you do me the honour of going to the millatery Christmas party with me?" Roy asked her.

"No she may not." Her father said, Lisa looked at her farther.

"Dad please can't you let me make my own decisions?" She asked him with a pleading look.

"Fine you can go. But don't come crying to me when he leaves you for someone else." He said turning to go into the back room. Roy couldn't believe it he was going to the party with Lisa on Friday. He gave Lisa a kiss and told her that he would pick her up at seven before leaving to go home and tell Maes the good news.

It's Friday evening and Ed and Al walked to Riza apartment to pick her and Winry up for the party. Winry had decided that she wanted to stay at Riza's so that they could get ready and keep what they would be wearing a secret from the brothers. They approached the door and Ed knocked.

"Just a minute." Came Riza's voice on the other side of the door over Hayate's barking. Ed and Al waited patiently for Riza to open the door. When she did open the door both her and Winry were wearing long black coats that almost reached the floor. Riza's hair was up in a gold clip where as Winry's was left down but had been curled. She was wearing light pink lipstick and had some massacrer on.

"Are you girls ready to go?" Ed asked, Riza nodded.

"Yes we are let me just take Hayate to my neighbour and we can go." She said walking over to her neighbours door followed by Hayate.

At the party everyone was talking and drinking with one another, Ed and Al helped Riza and Winry off with their coats and was stunned with how beautiful they looked.

"Wow Winry that dress looks beautiful on you and I like the way you have styled your hair." He said admiring her beauty, Winry blushed.

"Thanks Al you really like it?" Al nodded, he never imagined that Winry could be more beautiful than what she already was. Ed was different, he stood and stared at Riza hypnotised by her beauty.

"Riza you look amazing." He said looking at how the dress complemented her hair and eyes perfectly. "Thank you Ed, you look stunning yourself." She replied looking at Ed's new suit. They all looked around until they spotted Roy standing near the bar with a girl.

"Hey General." Ed said walking up to the bar with Riza, Al and Winry.

"Hey Fullmetal I never expected to see you in a suit." Roy said looking at Ed and Riza walking towards him.

"Wow Major, may I say how beautiful you and Miss Rockbell look this evening." Roy said kissing their hands. Ed gave Roy a glare.

"Watch it General, people will start to think that you are a date stealer." Ed said to Roy making him laugh.

"Don't worry Fullmetal I have no intention of stealing your date." Roy said turning to Lisa who was wearing the same kind of dress as Riza but it was navy blue, she even had her hair up the same way as Riza but with a navy blue clip.

"Lisa I would like you to meet the gang, this is Edward Elric the Fullmetal Alchemist , his brother Alphonse Elric, Riza Hawkeye and Winry Rockbell." Roy said introducing everyone.

"Everyone this is Lisa Swan." Lisa looked like she was in shock.

"Your last name is Hawkeye?" She asked Riza who nodded.

"Your father wouldn't happen to be Berthold Hawkeye by any chance would it?" She asked, Riza raised her eyebrow.

"Yes he was, how do you now my farther?" Riza asked curious as to how anyone would know her farther when he was a recluse.

"He is my uncle. He married my farther's sister causing him to disown her." Lisa explained, Riza couldn't believe what Lisa was saying.

"So we are cousins." She said trying to process the information. Whilst Riza was talking to Lisa, Ed looked around the room to see if he could spot Emily who was holding something really important for him. He saw her talking to some of the other woman from HQ and made a excuse to go over to talk to her without causing any suspicions.

"Hey Al how about I go and introduce you to my team?" Ed said to Al who was catching up with Roy.

"All right Brother, I really want to meet Major Wright." Al replied.

"If you would excuse us ladies, General." Ed said polity. He left the bar with Al to go to speak with Emily.

"Hello Lieutenant, and don't you look lovely this evening." Ed said charmingly as he approached the women. Emily turned around to see her commanding officer walking towards her.

"Thank you Sir, and might I say that you look different without your uniform on." She replied. Emily was wearing a beautiful green shimmery strapless dress with a chic sweep train that went well with her emerald green eyes.

"This my brother Alphonse." Ed said introducing them, Al shook her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Knotts my brother has told me a lot about you." He said. Whilst this was happening Emily passed what she had been looking after for Ed over to Al.

"Well we had better go back to our dates, see you later lieutenant." Ed said turning to leave and headed back to the bar.

"That was a quick chat." Winry said as she saw Ed and Al coming back over to them.

"We didn't want to be seen to be ignoring our dates." Ed replied, he turned to Emily and gave her a quick wink whilst no-one was looking. Getting the signal Emily went up to talk to the singer of the band. As soon as the music started up Al handed Ed what Emily had giving him.

"Would you like to dance Riza?" Ed asked holding out his hand. "I would love to Ed." Ed and Riza went to the dance floor to dance followed by Al, Winry, Lisa and Roy. As they danced Riza listened to the music as it played.

_Whenever sang my songs, on the stage, on my own_

_Whenever say my words, wishing they would be heard._

"Ed this is." Riza couldn't believe it, the band was playing their song.

_I saw you smiling at me, is it real or just my fantasy?_

_You'd always be there at the corner of this tiny little bar._

_My last night here with you same old songs just once more_

_My last night here with you? Maybe yes maybe no._

Riza hugged Ed tight as they danced. "You planned this didn't you?" She said as they danced, Ed just smiled.

_I kind of liked it your way, how you shyly placed your eyes on me_

_Did you ever know that I had mine on you?_

Ed suddenly knelt down in front of Riza, and the music went quiet causing everyone in the room to look at them.

"Riza before I meet you I never thought that I would ever love or deserve to be loved. I would blame myself for everything that had ever happened in my life and would have probably fallen many times if it weren't for your kind words and guidance, you mean the world to me and the last two years would have been nothing without you in it." Ed said to a surprised Riza. He pulled out a small box and held it up to her making some off the people in the room gasp.

"Riza I love you with all my heart and what to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" He opened up the box revealing a nine carat gold diamond ring. Everyone in the room watched in anticipation as Riza stared at the diamond ring. Ed looked up at her with loving eyes waiting for her answer.

"Yes Ed of course I will marry you." Riza said, everyone cheered as Ed put the ring on her finger and kissed her. Lisa and Winry went up to her to look at her ring.

"Oh wow it's beautiful." Winry said, she gave Riza a hug and congratulated her.

"Congratulations Fullmetal." Roy said walking up to him with Maes and Gracia following him. "Yeah who would have thought that the Fullmetal Alchemist would ever marry." Jean said also walking up to him with Sarah to shake his hand.

"Thanks Jean, Roy." Ed said. The band started up again and everyone went back to dancing as Roy, Ed and the gang went to the bar to buy drinks to celebrate Ed and Riza's engagement.

"To Ed and Riza, may they have a happy life together." Roy said raising his glass.

"So when do you think you'll be getting married?" Gracia asked Riza. "I don't know, what do you think Ed?" Riza asked her Fiancé.

"When ever you would like." Ed replied taking a sip of wine, they all talked about the wedding and what they would like to do went Fuhrer Grumman came over.

"Congratulations, I see everything went of perfectly." He said to Ed causing Riza to look at him.

"Hey Granddad." Lisa said jumping up to give the Fuhrer a hug, everyone stared at her.

"Granddad?" Riza said confused. "Yes Lisa is my granddaughter." Grumman said giving Roy a don't upset her look.

"So does that mean that..."

"Yea he is also your grandfather. I thought you knew that."

"No I didn't, I was told that I had no other family." Riza explained.

"Maybe I should explain." Grumman said sitting down at the bar. He told Riza about how her mum married her father hoping that she would impress her brother and prove to him that not all alchemists are bad.

"Your mother and farther was happy and your uncle David started to believe that his sister was right, until she became dreadfully ill after giving birth to you. We all begged him to take her to a doctor but he refused saying that he didn't trust them and he didn't have the money to pay for one. Your mother died that winter. Afterwards David vowed that he would have nothing more to do with him and blamed him for her death." Grumman explained.

"But Lisa didn't you tell me that your family business was pasted down from your father's dad?" Roy asked also becoming confused.

"Yes I did." Lisa said looking at her grandfather. "The shop was in my name up until David was old enough to take it over, you see even though I owned the shop I still joined the millatery and let my wife to manage the shop."

"But isn't the shops name Swan's shop?" Roy asked getting even more confused.

"Yes it is my son decided to change his name to his mothers maiden name and changed the shops name because he felt that I had betrayed them, you see I wasn't exactly faithful to her and my son never forgave me for breaking her heart." Roy nodded it was all starting to make sense.

"But way didn't you ever tell me?" Riza asked.

"When I heard about your fathers death I went in search for you, but then I heard that you had joined the millatery and I didn't want you to get any trouble because people knew that we where related. I did have a few enemies that would have loved to get me back through my family." Grumman said giving Riza a look that said he was truly sorry. Riza gave her grandfather a hug.

"Thank you for trying to protect me, I'm just happy to know that I do have family out there." They all had a drink and danced until it was time for the party to start winding down. They all said goodbye to each other and Ed thanked Sophie and Emily for all of their help before they left to go home, Winry stayed over at Riza's for the night so that she could find out what Riza wanted to do for the wedding. Ed and Al said good night to them before heading home themselves, Ed with a big grin on his face, this was one of the happiest nights of his life and he planned to have more.

**Thanks for reading, I hope that you enjoyed. The song was Eyes on me by Faye Wong from the game final fantasy eight. Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own FMA**

It was the week after the party and everyone in HQ was talking about Ed and Riza's engagement. Everyone knew that they where going out, but never expected Ed to propose to her. Ed walked down HQ heading to the cafeteria so that he could get himself a coffee and some breakfast before starting his work. He went up to the counter and asked for his usual before sitting down at the table to eat his meal. He was just about to take a bite out of his toast and eggs when some soldiers came over to his table.

"Good morning Colonel Elric." One of the men said sitting down opposite him. Ed said good morning to them and carried on with eating his breakfast.

"We heard that you proposed to Major Hawkeye last Friday at the party." One of the other men said, Ed nodded his head.

"Yes I did." He replied eating some of his scrambled eggs and drinking his coffee. The men looked at each other and went to ask him some more questions when General Mustang walked over to them.

"Why don't you leave the Colonel to eat his breakfast in peace." He said sitting down next to Ed, the men looked at each other before saluting the General and went of to do their duties.

"Thanks Mustang." Ed said drinking his coffee. Roy looked at what Ed was eating.

"I can not believe that you are actually eating that." Roy said in disgust.

"I have eaten far worst whilst on my travels believe me." Ed replied finishing his breakfast and taking the tray back to the counter for the staff to take.

"So what brought you here anyway? Since you don't eat the food here." Ed asked.

"I came to ask if you and Riza would like to come to dinner with us on Friday night?" Roy asked Ed as they walked out of the cafeteria and heading towards there office's that are on the other floor.

"I don't know I will have to ask Riza." Ed replied, they walked up the stairs and stood outside Ed's office.

"OK I will ask Riza when she comes in and get her to discuss it with you at lunch." Roy said, Ed went into his office to start the days work whilst Roy went to his office to do the same. When Ed walked into the office all of his subordinates cheered 'congratulations'.

"Thank you." Ed said taking of his coat to hang up on the coat peg in his office.

"Emily and Michael tells us that you proposed to her in the middle of the dance floor with everyone watching." Susumu said sitting at his desk. Ed just nodded.

"I wish I had been there to see it." Nelson said leaning on his desk.

"Haven't you all got work to do?" Ed asks smirking at them, he went into his office and started on his paperwork. At about eleven o'clock Ed heard someone knocking on his door. "Come in."

"Colonel Elric, the Fuhrer asked me to bring these to you." The soldier said, he handed the papers to Ed and saluted before leaving the office to let Ed look at the papers. He read through them and called for all of his subordinates to see him. They all stood in front of his desk at attention wondering why the Colonel had called them to see him.

"I have called you all in here to discuss the training that you all will be doing for the next couple of months." Ed said reading the paper in front of him. "The Fuhrer has arranged for first aid training for who ever wants it, though I do recommend that at least one of you have this training excluding Wright." Ed said, he looked at everyone and waited for someone to volunteer.

"I will do it." Emily said stepping forward.

"So will I." said Michael also stepping forward.

"OK, training will be every Friday after noon in room 304 on the third floor after lunch." Ed said giving them the form to look at.

"Next the fuhrer has agreed to allow me to train you all to help with your fighting skills, be warned I take my training very seriously and I expect you all to do the same. I will not tolerate any messing around in my training sessions. Understood." Ed glared at his subordinates making them all gulp.

"Because of the policy that says that men can't fight with women in training I will not be able to train you Lieutenant, but I do know someone who can." Ed said making Emily sigh in relief.

"I wouldn't look to relieved, the person who I will be asking help from is my old alchemy and combat sensei." Emily froze at his words, she had heard off how the Elric brother was trained by a strong and scary woman who helped defeat the enemy during the crisis the country was going through three years ago.

"You don't mean?" Ed grinned at her. "I see that you have heard the rumours, yes she did help when the country was in crisis. She even took down a Briggs bear in the middle of winter during her own training." Emily paled, the bears up in Briggs are rumoured to be at least ten feet tall whilst on there hind legs.

"Major Hawkeye has also offered to help anyone who wants with their skills using a gun." Ed asked everyone in the room nodded.

"All right I will tell her that you all want to be trained by her at the shooting range." Ed dismissed everyone to think about what they would be doing the next couple of months.

In Roy's office Riza was going through the reports that needed to be finished by the end of the month to make sure that Roy was keeping up with his work.

"It seems that you have been working hard Sir this month, there isn't to much work for you to do." Riza commented, she was pleased to see that Roy had started taking his work seriously.

"Well I'm not going to get promoted just by sitting around and doing nothing." Roy said signing his name on the bottom of a form.

"By the way Major, are you busy Friday night?" Roy asked Riza who raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why do you ask Sir?" Riza asked wondering what her commanding officer was up to.

"Lisa wanted to know if you and Fullmetal wanted to go out with us on Friday." Roy said looking at Riza with a smile. Riza smiled back at him.

"I would love to go, does Ed know about this?"

"I spoke to him about it this morning, he said that he wanted to talk to you first to see if you wanted to go." Roy said picking up another of his forms.

"OK well it's almost lunch time, did you want me to get you anything before I go to see Ed?" She asked him standing near the door. "No thanks Riza, I have brought my own lunch with me. How no-one hasn't had food poisoning from eating that muck is beyond me." Roy said causing Riza to giggle. She left the office and picked up the bag she keeps in her desk draw and went to Ed's office to have lunch with him. When Riza went into the outer office she noticed that Major Wright and Lieutenant Knotts was sat at their desks eating their lunch and talking.

"What do you think about this training?" Susumu asked Emily who was sitting at her desk.

"It seems really scary, have you ever heard the tales of that woman?" Emily replied paling at the thought of being trained by the merciless woman. Emily turned to face Riza when she heard someone enter the room.

"Good afternoon Major, the Colonel is in his office." She smiling at Riza who smiled back at her.

"Thank you Lieutenant, Oh Major Wright how did your discussion go with Dr Marco?" Riza asked.

"It went really well. Dr Marco was able to help me perfect my transmutation circle and has helped me make it possible to develop healing alchemy that can heal broken bones as well as wounds." Wright said sounding really confident with his research. Riza went into Ed's office with a smirk on her face.

"Hi Riza." Ed said standing up to give her a hug.

"Hey Ed, how has your morning been?"

"OK, your grandfather sent me his approval to train my team and gave permission to allow my old sensei to train Emily since I'm not allowed to fight her. Not like I would though." Ed said sitting on the couch next to Riza like they normally do when they have their lunch.

"Well look at it this way at least you will know that she will be trained to her fullest without you having to worry about being to hard on her." Riza said handing Ed his sandwich.

"Yeah your right, I just feel sorry for Emily. Compared to my training Izumi will work her to the bone, she's lucky that she isn't learning alchemy from her as well." Ed said shivering from the memory.

"How is Izumi? I haven't seen her since see came to see you last year to check up on you." Riza asked.

"She's all right, apparently ever since Hohen...I mean dad helped her by rearranging her organs with his alchemy, she has been of perfect health." Ed replied.

"That's good, so what about your father?"

"Nothing, but that doesn't surprise me in the slightest." Ed finished of his sandwich and cuddled up to Riza.

"How are you and Lisa getting along?" Ed asked Riza who but their rubbish in the bin before cuddling close to Ed.

"It's still a little strange, I grow up believing that my father was my only family, and he wasn't good at being a father." Riza said remembering what her father had done to her in order to keep his secrets safe.

"She is really nice, apparently she wants us to go to dinner with her and Roy." Riza said.

"I know Mustang mentioned it this morning, would you like to go?" Ed asked.

"Yes I think it would be good, it would give me a chance to properly introduce the two of you." Riza replied giving Ed a smile. Ed and Riza sat talking for a while longer before Riza went back to Roy's office.

The day seemed to be going well until Fuhrer Grumman walked into Roy's office. "Fuhrer Grumman Sir, I was about to bring these papers up to you." Roy said standing up and saluting.

"General Mustang, I wish to talk to you about an important matter." Grumman said sitting down in a chair in front of Roy's desk.

"I have an important misson for you. There have been reports of millatery soldiers causing trouble in the town of Pendleton in the west. I would like you and a few people that you can trust to go there and do an investigation in the guise of an inspection." Grumman said passing Roy the folder with the details in it. Roy looked through the folder.

"Yes Sir, I will assemble my best and head out as soon as we are ready." Roy said putting the folder on his desk. "Good, Oh and General, General Hakuro is in charge of Western command so be careful, I know that you two don't get on too well." Grumman said standing up to leave. When Grumman had gone Roy called his team into the office.

"What is it Sir?" Hawkeye asked walking into the office.

"The Fuhrer has just given us an important mission, he wants me and two of my best men to go to a town in the west called Pendleton to investigate the reports of soldiers causing trouble in the town." Roy said standing up from his desk. Hawkeye gave Roy a carious look.

"Why would the Fuhrer want us to go all the way to the west to investigate rumours of disobedient soldiers?" She asked, she know that there had to be some other under line reason for her grandfather to be sending them there.

"I don't know. But he did mention before he left that to be careful of Hakuro who has been put in chargeof Western command." Roy said. "He also said that he wants me to go down there pretending to be doing a route inspection."

"I see so that means that there is something going on in the military that he wants dealt with discreetly." Riza said to Roy who agreed.

"Falman I want you to go down to the filing room and find out any information about western command and Hakuro." Roy ordered, Falman saluted and went to find the information that the General wants.

"Havoc and Breada, when we have the information, I want you to accompany me to Pendleton to investigate this matter." Havoc and Breada nodded in understanding.

"Hawkeye I want you to stay here and take command of the office until I come back." Riza saluted. "Understood General." Roy dismissed them and picked up the phone to call Lisa about their plans on Friday.

"Hello?"

"Hello Lisa." Roy said disappointed that he wouldn't be able to go to dinner with her on Friday.

"Hi Roy, what's wrong?" Lisa asked hearing the annoyance in his voice.

"It's about Friday, your grandfather has asked me to go down to western command and do an inspection there so I won't be able to make it." Roy explained to her.

"Oh OK well we could always have dinner when you get back. How long do you think you'll be away?" She asked hoping that he wouldn't be away for to long.

"I don't know it might be a week or more. But don't worry Riza and Fullmetal will still be able to go with you." Roy said trying to cheer her up.

"All right, will I be able to see you before you go?"

"I will have Riza bring you to the train station when I am leaving so we can say good bye." Roy said, he talked to Lisa some more about how things where going with her and Riza and what her father thought about it, before saying goodbye and hanging up. At four o'clock Falman came back into the office with the information Roy wanted.

"General I have the information that you asked for, ever since General Hakuro was put in command of western command there have been many reports of people seeing soldiers sneaking around the town, the crime rate has gone up by 10% and there are even reports that many people have been attacked by soldiers for no reason." Roy frowned something was going on and Grumman wanted it to be sorted quietly.

'How has this been allowed to go on for so long?' Roy thought to himself. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"Yes there is, apparently rumour has it that Lieutenant Colonel Drake has been seen spending a lot of time with General Hakuro outside of work." Falman said Roy stood up from his desk and took the folder with the information that Falman had brought him.

"Thank you Second Lieutenant. You are dismissed." Falman left the office and went back to his work, Roy called in Havoc and Breada.

"You wanted to see us General?" Havoc said walking into the office.

"Yes Captain Havoc and Lieutenant Breada I want you to prepare yourself for departure, we catch are train at eight tomorrow." Roy said, Havoc and Breada left the office to prepare themselves for their departure the next day. Roy finished of his paperwork and left work at five. As he was leaving he saw Hawkeye standing near the door waiting for him.

"Hi General, you all set for tomorrow?" Riza asked.

"Yes I have finished of my paperwork for today as well so there should be too much for me when I get back." Roy said, he didn't want to come back and have piles of paperwork to do. "I told Lisa that you and Fullmetal will be going to dinner with her without me." Roy said.

"OK I will ring her and arrange to meet her at the restaurant." Riza said, she looked behind Roy and saw Ed walking up to them.

"Hey, I hope I haven't kept you waiting?" Ed said, Riza smiled.

"No you haven't, Roy was just saying that it will be just you and me going to dinner on Friday with Lisa." Riza said holding his hand, Ed grinned at Roy.

"Really? That means that I can tell her all of embarrassing things that you have ever done, like say you walking around HQ in a mini skirt singing the happy song." Ed laughed, Roy glared at him.

"Don't you dare Fullmetal." Roy threatened causing Ed to laugh harder.

"Don't worry Sir I will make sure that he doesn't say anything." Riza said reassuringly, Ed pouted at her. "Aw and I have so much to tell her." Roy just glared at him.

"Oh before I forget, I told Lisa that you would bring her to the train station tomorrow so that we can say goodbye." Roy said, Riza nodded.

"Why can't you go to see her tonight?" Ed asked him.

"Because she is having dinner with her parents tonight." Roy explained. "Wow it sounds like you and her family get on really well." Ed commented sarcasticlly causing Roy to glare at him some more. They all walked home so that they could rest and get ready for the next day.

The next morning Riza, Lisa and Sarah stood on the platform waving to Roy, Jean and Breada who was on the train ready to depart and head to Pendleton. "Bye Roy I hope that you will be back soon." Lisa said standing near the window, Roy lended out and kissed her. The whistle blow and the train moved out of the station. Sat in a private carriage Roy went through the information that Falman had given him so that they would be prepared when they got there.

"What do two think?" Roy said wanting to know what they thought could be going on in the town.

"I don't know Sir, but something shady is happening down there." Havoc said.

"I agree, Breada you was stationed in the west for a while, is there anything that you can tell me about the town."

"Not really I was stationed in west city where the command centre is, I only know of rumour that I had heard whilst I was there." Breada said, Roy thought about the information he had been given.

"Apparently Hakuro and Drake visit Pendleton quit often, there must be something there." Roy said thinking aloud.

"Maybe his family lives there." Havoc commented, Breada shook his head. "No his family live in west city, and so do Drake's there must be something else." He said.

"Well we will find out and stop the corruption." Roy said, they all sat there talking about other things until they arrived at Pendleton. "So it looks like that you and Miss Swan are getting along quit well." Havoc said with a huge smirk on his face.

"Yes we are, though her father doesn't seem pleased with it. He's watching and waiting for me to screw up so that he can rub it in and go around telling people about how he was right." Roy said slouching in his seat.

"Don't worry General, I'm sure that he will warm up to you evientally." Breada said trying to cheer his commanding officer up. "I hope so, but for now we need to concentrate on the task at hand." They sat and talked, watching the world go by, looking forward to be off the train and in a warm bed.

Back in Central, Ed was stood in front on his team in the millatery training room with Izumi stood next to him.

"Everyone this in my former sensei Izumi Curtis, she will be helping me with me training over the next couple of months. Like I have said before this isn't a game, I expect you all to work hard and take everything we tell you seriously. Do I make myself clear?" Ed said to the frightened men and woman in front of him.

"Yes Sir." they all replied.

"All right to start of I think we will have you all run around this room. I want you all to do twenty laps just to start you off." Ed said looking at Izumi for guidance. They all looked at him like he had gone mad.

"Twenty laps?" Todds questioned causing Izumi to glare at him. "What? I thought that the millatery's training is supposed to be the best, don't tell me that you can't do simple twenty laps around this room? I think that these men are weak Edward, what have you been teaching them?" She asked looking at Ed.

"This is why I wanted them to have this training." Ed said, he looked at his team and gave them a look that said 'run or else I will make you.' Everyone started running with Ed and Izumi running behind them. When they had finished they all collapsed on the floor exhausted whilst Ed and Izumi stood there like they could do more. Ed allowed them to rest for a couple of minutes before telling them to stand up again.

"All right now I want you all to do some simple stretches and then we can move on to the real training." Everyone paled, real training? They thought that that was the real training. By lunch time everyone was exhausted and hungry, they all went to the cafeteria and was surprised at what they saw, there was a big butch man standing behind the counter where the food is served and the smell coming from the kitchen was heavenly. They went up to the counter and picked up there trays.

"What is Sig doing behind the counter?" Ed asked Izumi who followed Ed's subordinates to get some lunch.

"When I told him that I would be coming here to help you train these soldiers, he said that he would join me since he has heard about how bad the food is in the cafeteria and wanted to help by helping the cook learn how to cook better." Izumi said grabbing a tray and passing one to Ed.

"Ah Edward I see that you have gotten taller since the last time I saw you." Sig said given Ed a bowl of beef stew. "Thanks Sig, it's nice that someone has noticed." Ed replied, they all went to sit down and ate there stew.

"Wow this tastes great, a lot better then the slop they usually give us." Griffen said tucking into his meal.

"I'm glade you like it, after all the hard work you have done today you need to replenish your calories. You will need it for the next part of the training." Izumi said making everyone of Ed's subordinates groan.

At the end of the day, everyone one of Ed's subordinates where limping home, being told that they had to be at work at seven so that their training could start again. Ed, Izumi and Sig walked home with Riza.

"Thanks for coming here to help Izumi, I think that they will become a lot stronger with your help." Ed said walking next to Riza.

"That's all right Ed though understand that I do this for you and not for the millatery." Izumi said holding Sig's arm as they walked. "Anyway it gives me a chance to talk to Riza and find out more about her." Ed gave Izumi a curious look.

"Why would you need to know more about Riza?" Ed asked.

"Well you are marrying her aren't you? I want to become more acquainted with her, after all we are like family." Izumi replied making Ed smile, he had always saw her as a foster mother, though he would never openly admit it.

"Though I am surprised that Alphonse is with Winry and you aren't, no offence Riza."

"None taken." Riza replied with a smile. "Winry is just a friend, she's like the sister I never had. I just never really saw her in that way, not like Al does." Ed said in explanation.

"As long as you both are happy that is all that matters. Oh by the way I was visited by your father the other week, he said that once his been to see Pinako he will come to visit you." Izumi said, Ed groaned.

"So he has finally decided to come and pay a visit, I wonder how long he his planning to stay this time?" Ed said slightly annoyed. "I thought that you was getting along with your father now?" Sig asked confused.

"I do it's just that how does he expect us to bond if he keeps dissapearing for years at a time?" Ed said looking upset, Riza squizzed his hand. "I am sure that once he has do what he has set out to do, he will settle down." Ed smiled at her.

"Now enough with this conversation, lets get home and have some dinner I suspect that after the workout I gave you and you men today has made you hungry." As if on cue Ed's stomach rumbled making everyone laugh. They all went back to Ed's apartment where Izumi cooked up a feast for them all.

In Pendleton Roy's train just arrived at the station. Roy, Jean and Breada got of the train and headed out of station to look for a hotel for the night. As they looked around the town people glared at them as they walked passed.

"I see that the people who live in this town are not happy to see us." Havoc said, they found a hotel and went in, they went up to the receptionist who didn't look pleased to see them.

"What ever it is, I don't care I have had enough of your kind coming in here causing trouble." The receptionist said folding his arms.

"We aren't here to cause any trouble, we just need a place to stay for a few nights." Roy calmly said.

"Oh really, well I'm afraid that we don't have any spare rooms available." The man said determined to make them leave. "Do you know of any place that would have any spare rooms." Roy asked polity irritating the receptionist.

"No I don't, why don't you try asking one of your millatery friends." The man said in a unfriendly voice causing Roy to frown. "What exactly have the millatery done to upset you? Maybe we may be able to help." Roy asked hoping that the man could give him some information as to what's been going on in the town.

"You mean you don't know? Where are you from?" The man asked suddenly interested. "We are from Central. We have heard rumours of soldiers illegally going around disturbing the citizens of this town so we where sent to conduct an inspection and investigate the allegations made." Roy explained to the receptionist. "You didn't answer me question." Roy said to the receptionist.

"The soldiers keep coming in here, saying that they are searching for something important. They turn everything upside down and reck everything looking for what ever it is they are searching for. If you refuse to let them in they accuse you of hiding something and have you arrested. I heard that someone wouldn't let the soldiers into his home because it was infested with rats from the sewers and was waiting for someone to come and help him, but the soldiers didn't believe him and broken it to his house, they ended up being infected by the rats and found nothing for their troubles. When that General from West city asked what had happened they lied and said that the man had done it them because he had a problem with the millatery. The man was imprisoned for attacking a soldier, his family now lives in this hotel because they burned down their home claiming that it was to get rid of the rats." Roy frowned, why had Hakuro allowed this to happen?

"OK we will talk to this General and try to convince him that it was the soldiers not the man at fault." Roy promised.

"I see well I still don't fully trust you but I supposed I can't throw you out, here this is the room we use for families that come to visit the town, but I warn you don't go causing trouble for my other guests or else I will throw you out." The receptionist handed Roy the key, they went up to the room and spoke about what they were going to do next.

"Well it is obvious that the millatery is well liked though the receptionist didn't seem to elaborate on what exactly why that is." Havoc said picking a bed and sitting on it.

"I understand why know why Ed always refused to wear the uniform on field missions." Breada commented.

"Yeah it must have been convenient. But lets not forget that even if the people knew that Fullmetal was in the millatery he always managed to change their minds." Roy said taking his jacket of and hanging it in the wardrobe

"First things first, we will need to go to West city tomorrow to conduct our 'inspection'. Whilst we are doing that we will talk to the people there to find out any information that we can." Roy said sitting on the bed.

"Breada you have been stationed there before, is there anyone that we can trust to talk to without them going to Hakuro or Drake?" Roy asked.

"Well we could talk to Lieutenant Glen Walker, he doesn't like Hakuro or Drake and would be more than happy to give some information." Breada replied "There is also Second Lieutenant Rose Piper who also as a problem with Lieutenant Colonel Drake."

"It sounds like Drake doesn't seem to be making friends." Havoc commented.

"Well it may have something to do with what's been happening around here, we will find out when we get there. Right now we should get some rest." Roy, Havoc and Breada went down to have some dinner before going to bed to rest before getting the train again in the morning.

Back in Central in Ed's apartment, Izumi and Sig was saying goodnight to Ed and Riza. "Are you sure that you won't stay here? I have a spare room you could use." Ed said, Izumi shook her head.

"Thank you Ed but we have already found a hotel for us to stay in, and besides you don't want us here when you could be spending some quality time with Riza." Izumi said causing Ed to blush. Izumi and Sig left to go to their hotel leaving Ed and Riza alone in the small apartment. "She's right you know I can't remember the last time you got to spend time together without dreading that someone may walk in at any moment." Riza said given him a kiss.

"Yeah with all the work I have to do at the moment and with Winry and Al being here last week we haven't had time to be really alone." Ed replied after the kiss. "So what do you want to do?"

"Why don't we go for a walk around the park, it's been awhile since we have done that." Riza suggested. They put on their coats and headed towards the park. As they walked they talked about the wedding and what they wanted to do.

"When do you what to get married?" Ed asked Riza as they looked at the lake watching two swans sitting close to each other on the bank. "I was thinking about a spring wedding, I have always wanted to get married in the spring." She said smiling at her fiance. "Then we will be married in the spring, it would be perfect for the idea that I had." Ed said looking across the lake.

"What plan is that?" Riza asked curious. "I was planning on arranging and outside wedding, if you agree." Ed replied looking into her hazel eyes. "I would love to get married outside, besides I doubt that any church would let you in." Riza replied laughing, they stayed there for a little while longer before heading home to rest for the night, Ed was going to need to with all the hard training he would be doing with his men the next day.

**Thanks for reading, please review.**


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist

It was the next day and Roy, Havoc and Breada headed down stairs to pay for their stay at the hotel. "I see that you didn't disturb my other guests." The receptionist said seeing them walking towards him. "How much do we owe you?" Roy asked reaching for his wallet. "It's 100 cens per person." The man said holding out his hand.

"That's a bit steep." Havoc commented, the man glared at him. "It's not like this place gets many customers since the millatery started harassing everyone in this town. We don't get anyone out of town visit any more, so money is hard to get." He replied.

"So you take as much as you can from people who do stay here is that it?" Havoc asked, Roy put his hand up telling Havoc to stop arguing with the man.

"I have to make a living somehow, it's the millatery's fault that this town is suffering." The man argued back, Roy went into his wallet and gave him the money.

"Before we go, do you know what the millatery is looking for?" Roy asked, the man shook his head. "Not a clue, if we knew then we would have given it to them to stop them harassing us."

"OK thank you, we promise to find out what they want and help this town as best we can." Roy promised and left the hotel to head to the train station. The man shook his head behind them. "I am sorry but I can't tell you where it is, this country's safety depends on it." He picked up the phone and dialled a number that was in a black book.

"Kiba, we have Central dogs sniffing around. Make sure that they don't get to West city." With that he hung up and went back to work as if everything was normal. Outside Roy pondered something that the receptionist had said to them.

"What's wrong General?" Breada asked seeing the look on Roy face. "I have a feeling that that man isn't telling us everything, when I asked him what the millatery is looking for he dismissed it saying that he didn't know." Roy said walking towards the train station.

"What's so suspicious about that, he probably doesn't know what they want. It wouldn't be the first time that someone in the millatery has done something like this for their own gain." Breada said.

"I agree with the General, there is something not quit right about that guy." Havoc said, they all walked to the station but was stopped by strange people standing in front of them wearing black clocks.

"Are you three the soldiers from Central?" The leader of the group asked stepping forward.

"Who wants to know?" Roy asked getting his gloves ready for a fight.

"I am Dove, I hear that you have been asking about things that don't concern you." Dove said, Roy frowned he knew that man couldn't be trusted.

"We are here to conduct an inspection at Western Command and thought that we would confirm the rumours that we had heard about the millatery and this town." Roy said hoping that they would believe them and leave them alone. Dove pulled out a dagger from her sleeve and throw it at Roy who barely managed to dodge.

"I cannot allow you to go there, we will not allow the millatery to take it from us."

"Take what? We don't know what you are talking about." Roy shouted but Dove wasn't listening, she charged at them with her men following ready to fight. Havoc and Breada pulled out their guns that where hidden in their coats and fired at them, but found that they were unable to hit them. Roy put on his glove and snapped his fingers causing fire to surround the group given them enough time to run for the station and jump on the train as it was departing. Dove stood watching as they ran to the station. 'So he is an alchemist, I'll have to tell Kiba what happened.'

"Men head back to base, I will need to report back to the boss." Dove ordered.

"But aren't we supposed to kill them, the boss won't be to happy that we failed." One of the Dove's Lieutenat's said, Dove stared at her. "Don't worry Kohaku I will talk to him, now lets go."

They all went back to their hideout with the look of defeat on their faces.

At West city Roy, Havoc and Breada got of at the station and walk to Western command constantly watching for any signs of anyone following them. In Western HQ Roy and his 'escorts' went to Hakuro's office to let him know of his arrival. They went into the outer office causing everyone in the room to jump up and salute at their guest.

"General Mustang, what brings you here?" A female officer who was a Lieutenant Colonel asked polity.

"I am here to conduct an inspection of this command centre and wish to speak to General Hakuro." Roy said in a commanding voice. The Lieutenant Colonel bowed her head and knocked on the General's door before entering, Roy followed her to the door.

"Sorry to disturb you Sir, But General Mustang from Central is here and wishes to speak to you." She said opening the door and allowing Roy to walk in.

"Mustang what are you doing here? I wasn't told that you would be visiting." Hakuro said surprised, Roy smirked and walked up to the desk.

"I am here by order of the Fuhrer, he has asked me to conduct an inspection of the west because there have been reports of soldiers harassing and attacking the citizens in a town called Pendleton." Roy said handing Hakuro the document that Grumman had given him to show Hakuro. Hakuro frowned, he didn't like that Grumman had send Roy to inspect his HQ and was even more pissed of to see that Roy was now a Lieutenant General, a rank higher than him.

"Of course General Mustang I would be happy to show you around HQ, but first you and your men must be hungry and tired from the travelling you have done." Hakuro said leading Roy out of the office.

"Lieutenant Colonel Drake, could you be so kind as to show the General's escorts to the cafeteria so that they can get some lunch whilst General Mustang and I talk in my office." He asked his second in command. Drake stood up and saluted before leading Havoc and Breada to the cafeteria.

"So Mustang, how much do you know?" Hakuro asked sitting at his desk again lacing his fingers together, Roy gave him a curious look. "About what?"

"Don't play dumb with me, two of my men saw you in Pendleton looking around and asking questions. What were you told?" Hakuro demanded.

"We where told that two soldiers attacked and burned down the home of a man who refused to allow them to search his home. Apparently he was imprisoned for attacking the soldiers after rats that infested his home bit them." Roy said with a stern look on his face. Hakuro frowned.

"Really, the only person that I know of that was imprisoned from that town was a man who attacked the soldiers and seriously injured them for unknown reasons. I have doctors reports that you can look at if you don't believe me." Hakuro said glaring at Roy who glared back.

"So the soldiers haven't been terrorizing the town's people, so why have Central been receiving reports of soldiers causing trouble for the towns people? They all can't be wrong." Roy said leaning in the chair that he was sitting in.

"I'm not saying that there hasn't been trouble there, but any soldiers caught causing unnecessary trouble have been disciplined for their reckless behaviour." Hakuro said not looking to happy with Roy's questioning.

"Anyway I would like to get started with my inspection, where can I find my men?" Roy asked, he wanted to look around to see if he can find any clue as to what was going on.

"They are in the cafeteria, Lieutenant could you take the general to meet his men." Hakuro said, Roy went out of the office and followed the Lieutenant to the cafeteria. Hakuro sat back at his desk and glared at the door.

'This is going to be a problem, I'll have to be more discrete whilst Mustang is here. Or better yet give him a distraction heh.' Just as Hakuro was thinking Drake walked into the room.

"This could prove to be a problem Sir, how are we to continue with the plan with them here?" She asked the General.

"Don't worry I have a plan, I will need you to get close to Mustang use your womanly charms to distract him." Hakuro said.

"But what if he keeps asking me questions?" She asked concerned, she had heard that Mustang can be quit sharp when on a mission.

"Tell him what ever you like as long as it is believable, once you have your claws into him it won't matter what you say." Hakuro said reassuring her. "I also want you to try and find out anything that Mustang might already know, I'm sure that he knows more then what he's letting on." Drake saluted Hakuro and left to find Mustang.

In the cafeteria Roy, Havoc and Breada was sat in the corner out of the way so that no-one could hear what they where saying. "Have you managed to find out anything?" Roy asked them. "Nothing, we haven't had the chance to talk to anyone." Havoc said sipping his coffee.

"All right Breada what department are your friends in?" Roy asked, he had an idea.

"Piper and Walker work in the investigations department." Breada replied.

"OK I want you to..."

"General Mustang, General Hakuro has ordered me to help you with your inspection." Drake said saluting him, Roy frowned it looked like Hakuro wanted to keep an eye on him.

"Lieutenant Colonel Drake was it? I thank you but I don't think..."

"He insists Sir, and besides I'm sure you want to get back to Central as so as possible, if you have me to show you around then the job would get done quicker." She said playing innocent."Please don't make me disobey the General's orders." She looked at Roy with pleading eyes.

"All right I would be happy to have your help, in fact I think that you may be able to help us, you see we heard that there have been trouble in Pendleton and I would like to see the men who have been going there recently so that I can question them myself." Roy said standing up from the table.

"Why do you want to speak to them, the matter has already been resolved and the General won't be to happy with you if you interfere too much here." Drake said looking worried. Roy gave her a stern look.

"Why? Is the General hiding something?" Roy asked looking into her eyes.

"No it's just that he doesn't really like you and if he finds out that I have been going behind his back then he won't be happy. He may even try to demote me or worst." Roy sighed.

"Don't worry I don't intended to get you into trouble, I just won't to get their side of the story that's all." Roy reassured her putting his hand on her shoulder. "Now where are the men so that I can speak to them." Drake led Roy to where two men where checking the weapons to make sure that they where all right to use. When they saw Drake walk into the room they stood up and saluted looking nervous.

"General Mustang these are two of the men that have been send to Pendleton to check on the civilians there." Drake said, Roy approached the two men. "What are your names?" Roy demanded.

"I'm Captain Stuart Bailey Sir." Replied the first man who have dark brunette hair and green eyes.

"And I'm Major Dean Pearce Sir." Replied the other man who had blonde hair and blue eyes.

"I would like to ask you both some questions regarding Pendleton and the reports that Central have been receiving lately." Roy said sitting down on one of the chairs and pulling out a note book and pen.

"I want to know why you where sent to Pendleton?" Roy said looking at the two men.

"We where sent there because of the town being so close to Creta, the General is worried that even though they signed a treaty with us they may try to sneak in and try to do something." Dean said. "We would patrol around the town and ask people if they have seen anything suspicious. Two weeks ago us and another two soldiers where sent to the town like normal, we patrolled one side of the town and they where patrolling the other. At the end of the day we had finished our shift and swapped with two others and headed to the inn there to get some food like we would normally do. When we got there the other two soldiers weren't there, but we presumed that they where running a little late. We sat playing a game of cards when the soldiers that would normally cover their shift came running into the inn panicked, when we asked them what was wrong they said that they had found the other two soldiers dead." Continued Stuart.

"Is this why the soldiers have been causing trouble around the town?" Breada asked the two. "Yes the two soldiers where found near a river bank that leads to an old farm. We have asked people about the farm but all that they would say is that the person that lived there had died many years ago and they don' t know of anyone else living up there." Dean replied.

"How where the soldiers killed?" Roy asked.

"We don't know we never saw the bodies. You will have to go and ask Piper down at investigations." Stuart answered.

"General Mustang is this really necessary, General Hakuro have been sending people there to investigate the matter. Shouldn't you just conduct your inspection and head back to Central with your report." Colonel Drake said causing the two soldiers to stare at her.

"Of course you would say that, you and General Hakuro are in this together, that's why you want the General to go away, so that you can..."

"How dare you speak to a superior like that, I could have you court marshalled for that." She shouted at them, but the two men just smirked at her. "Well go a head then, I'm sure that they would love to hear all about it." They said.

"Enough of this, Lieutenant Colonel don't you forget that I am your superior here and I will not have you standing in the way of my investigation." Roy said staring daggers at her. "Now you have two choices number one: you help me or two: you leave me to do the job that I was sent here to do." Drake glared at him.

"I will help you with your inspection but not your investigation, as far as we are concerned there is no investigation that Central needs to get involve in, we have it under control." Drake said, Roy sighed. "I wasn't just sent here to do an inspection..."

"We know, but the General doesn't trust you. He feels that this is his area of command and he doesn't want anyone coming in and stealing his glory." Drake said looking away from him.

"OK but let me ask one more question, have you ever seen a group of people walking around in black robes?" Roy asked.

"Umm let me think...yes I have but I just thought that they where priests or something as they where going into the church." Stuart said remembering the suspicious people but thought nothing of it.

"The same group of people attacked us as we where leaving the town, the leader of the group called herself Dove." Roy said, Drake looked surprised at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yes we are." Havoc replied for the General.

"Then we shall send someone there to investigate at once, I need to tell the General right away." She said before running out of the door. Roy turned and looked at Havoc.

"I want you to go and listen in to what she tells him, try not to get caught." He ordered, Havoc saluted.

"Breada can you go down to the investigation department and find out how those soldiers died, I will go about with the 'inspection' and meet you at the cafeteria when we have finished." Havoc and Breada left the room to do as Roy had asked as Roy spoke to the to soldiers. "Tell me everything you know about the situation in Pendleton." He said sitting in front of the two men.

Havoc went to General Hakuro's outer office and looked inside to see if anyone was in there, lucky for him the office was empty so he went in and put his ear to the door to listen in to what Drake was saying to Hakuro.

"You left him alone so that he could ask his questions, what where you thinking he could ruin everything." Hakuro said angrily.

"But I-I needed t-to tell you what I f-f-found out, it has to be in t-the town, why el-else would the group that Mustang spoke of be there." Drake said, she sounded almost scared like she was afraid of Hakuro or something.

"You disobeyed a direct order, now not only do we have those sword wielding maniacs to worry about but Mustang as well." Hakuro reprimanded his voice as cold as ice as he is he spoke to her. There was the sound of skin hitting skin making Havoc flinch, he never thought that Hakuro would hit a subordinate.

"I-I'm sorry S-Sir it won't happen again." She asked, her voice shaking.

"Make sure that it doesn't, now we need to send more soldiers into the town, we know that the idol is there we just have to keep asking until someone caves and tells us where there hiding it." Hakuro replied. Havoc frowned, what is it that they are looking for? And why is it so important?

"N-not to be disrespectful Sir, but I-I don't th-think that will work. S-some of the men are al-already starting to g-get suspicious with your orders." Drake said with fear in her voice.

"And what do you recommend?" Hakuro asked is voice emotionless and cold.

"I was th-thinking that w-we could use M-M-Mustang whilst he is here, hi-his flame alchemy may come i-in handy, not to m-mention that he may be able to convince the t-towns people to help us." Drake said, Havoc didn't like the sound of this. What were they up to?

"All right we will do it you way, but don't let him find out too much about what we are doing we don't want him going back to Central and telling the Fuhrer, I have worked to hard to have him ruin it for me now." Hakuro said dismissing her, upon Drake being dismissed from the office Havoc got up and ran out of the office so not to be seen. He started walking again when he turned a corner so not to look suspicious. 'I have to tell the General.' He though heading to the weapons room where he had left Roy hoping that he would still be there. He got to the room and saw that Roy had just finished talking to the two men.

"All right thank you for the information, if you find out any more let me know." Roy turned to leave to see Havoc standing in the door way. "Sir we need to talk." He said giving Roy a serious look, Roy nodded and left the room to head to the cafeteria where he said they would meet. They found a table in the corner so that they could talk in peace without someone eavesdropping.

"What did you find out?" Roy asked Havoc who looked around to make sure that no-one was around before speaking in a whisper.

"I don't know what's fully going on but I heard them talking about trying to find some idol, apparently those people that we ran into as we where leaving the town is looking for it as well." Havoc said Roy frowned he did like officers who abused their position, he had to do something about this before someone else gets hurt.

"OK at least we know now why they attacked us, when Breada comes back with hopefully more useful information we can..."

"General Mustang I see that you have finished interrogating the men." Drake said walking up to the table and saluting before sitting next to him. Havoc and Roy glanced at each other, it looked like she wasn't going to leave them alone. Drake caught the glances that they exchanged with each other, it was obvious that they didn't trust her, she had to do something to get there trust.

"Sorry General I was interpreting something wasn't I, I-I am so sorry I will leave you to continue your business." She said standing up and bowing, she turned to leave when Roy stopped her. "What happened to your cheek?" He asked noticing the mark that Hakuro had left on her left cheek. Drake looked at Roy with sorow in her eyes.

"Oh i-it's nothing, I wasn't looking where I was going earlier and bumped into a door. It's nothing to be concerned about." She said looking away from him, Roy pulled her towards him and examined the mark.

"It looks more like someone slapped you, now please tell me who did this to you." He said looking into her eyes showing that he would put up with bulling in the millatery.

"It...it was the General, he wa-was angry with me for leaving you to talk to those soldiers. He sees you as a threat and doesn't want you to..."

"Doesn't want me to what?" Roy asked. "I can't... I have already said too much, if he finds out that I have been telling you this then..."

"Don't worry I won't let him do anything to you, but I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on." Drake looked at Mustang and smiled at him.

"All right I will tell you all that I know, but not here there are still soldiers here that are still loyal to the General." She said looking around suspiciously, just as they where walking out of the room Breada walked up to them with a serious look on his face, he saw Drake with them and glared at her making her cringe. Roy noticed the look and gave him a stern expression.

"I take it you found out something?" He asked, Breada nodded not wanted to say anything in front of the Lieutenant Colonel. Roy understood Breada caution he didn't know if he should trust her either, he would have to talk to them in private at their hotel later, put first if he could get anything out of her that could help them he would. Drake guided them all to an interrogation room so that they could talk without anyone listening, they sat around the table and waited for her a start explaining her self.

"OK as you probably already know the General have been sending soldiers to the town to search for something. The General told me that it is some kind of idol, why he wants it I don't know but I think that it maybe worth a fortune." Drake explained.

"Do you know anything about this idol? Where it came from or who it may belong to?" Roy asked her, he took out his notepad and pen and was writing everything that she said down so that he could refer back to it later.

"No I have no idea where it came from though I think that those people that you ran into on the way here may have something to do with it." Drake replied, Roy questioned her some more about what he had heard before calling it a day. "OK Lieutenant Colonel we will help you, but just so that we are clear I will not take kindly to being lied to, if I find out that anything that you have told me today is a lie then I will not be happy. Understood?"

"Y-yes General I understand perfectly, I-I just hope th-that we can get all this sorted out s-so that we can start rebuilding the t-trust with the towns people again." Drake replied, Roy, Havoc and Breada left to go to their hotel. In their room Roy sat down on his bed and asked both Havoc and Breada what they had found out.

"Well Sir when I was listening to their conversation through the door, I did hear Hakuro slap the Lieutenant Colonel." Havoc said confirming that she had been telling them the truth about the General hitting her. "The whole thing about the idol wasn't completely a lie either, she suggest to Hakuro that he using us to get the idol for them saying the 'Mustang's flame alchemy could be useful'. Though I think that the reason she said that was so that he would hit her again." Havoc said remembering the conversation that Drake and Hakuro had had in his office. Roy nodded in agreement.

"What did you find out?" Roy asked looking at Breada who pulled out his notebook with his finding in. "Apparently Piper from investigations was the one who sent the reports to Central, she said they investigated the case with the man apparently attacking those two soldiers but was blocked by Hakuro who said that he had ordered the soldiers to search the area for the people that where responsible for the murder of the two soldiers on patrol. Because the man had refused to let them in to search his home they arrested him on suspicion of either killing the two men or harbouring the people who did." Breada explained. "Also Piper told me that she had heard rumours of the General sending good men to search for an unknown item, she thinks that the General is using the soldiers deaths as an excuse to harass the towns people into given him what he is looking for." Breada said putting his notebook away, Roy sat in thought for a moment letting his brain process the information that he had just received. "Did she tell you how the two men where killed?"

"Yes Sir she said that they where stabbed to death by what could have been a dagger." Breada replied

"All right so we know that the General is looking for this idol, I think that we need to go back to Pendleton and investigate for ourselves, I want to talk to that Dove person so that we can get a better understanding of what this idol is and who it belongs to." Roy said, they went down to have some dinner and then went to bed for the night.

The next day Roy, Havoc and Breada left early so that they could catch the train to Pendleton, on the way there they where stopped by Drake. "Are you heading back to Pendleton?" She asked them, Roy nodded.

"Yes we are going to talk to this person called Dove, I want to see in she can tell us about the idol." Roy replied, Drake looked shocked. "B-But isn't that the person who t-tried to kill you before?" She asked nervously. "Yes she is but I am willing to risk that, if we can show them that we mean them no harm and that we want to help them then maybe they might give us the information we need." Roy said, he looked at her with concern. "Why don't you come with us." Roy said Drake looked away from him. "I can't what if the General gets angry with me again." She said sounding scared, Roy lifted her chin up and made her look at him. "I will not allow him to do that, you are a smart girl with a bright future, don't let Hakuro tell you any differently." Drake blushed she didn't know what to say, so instead she kissed Roy on the lips. "Thank you General, I will do my best." They continued to walk to the train station unaware that someone had been watching them.

When they got to Pendleton they noticed that the streets where a lot quieter then when they where there the day before. "Where is everyone?" Havoc questioned. They kept on walking until they heard people shouting and what sounded like a fight, Roy put on his gloves as they walked towards the scene. There in front of them was four soldiers surrounding Dove who had her blades out ready to defend herself, the four men moved closer to her raising there guns ready to shoot her, Dove swung her blades and knocked the guns out of the men's hands, she thought that she was safe until one of the men grabbed her from behind holding her so that the other three men could do what they wanted to her. Roy could see what the men had in mind for the captive, angry with what he had seen he stepped forward and snapped his fingers causing fire to erupted above their heads. Scared of what might happen the man let go of Dove and looked for the person who had interpreted their fun.

"What do you think you are doing?" Roy demanded, the men looked at Roy with scared eyes, they had recognised him and was afraid of having their heads blown of.

"We where trying to arrest this woman on suspicion of the murder of Sergeant Smith and Jones." One of the men said, Roy frowned at them causing them to cringe in fright.

"Really, it looked to me that you was harassing the woman. Do you have proof to your claims?" Roy asked. "No Sir but we where ordered by General Hakuro to arrest anyone that looked suspicious for questioning." One of the other men said hoping that Roy would leave them if he knew that it was an order.

"The General ordered you to come and harrass innocent people?" Drake asked walking towards the men.

"How do you know that she is innocent? Who else could have stabbed Smith and Jones to death?" The third man asked her suspiciously.

"That is not for you to know, all you need to know is that she didn't kill them." Drake said standing her ground.

"All right, you heard the Lieutenant Colonel. Now leave her allown and go back to your posts." Roy said, the four men glared at Drake.

"Not until the Lieutenant Colonel explains how she knows that she didn't kill them are you working with them is that it?." They asked raising there guns. Roy stepped in front of Drake and raised his right arm with his fingers ready to snap.

"Don't you even think about it, now go back to your posts." Roy threatened, the four men put they guns away and went back to there posts like they had been ordered to. As they walked by them drake heard one of the men mutter "This isn't over traiter."When the men had gone Roy walked up to Dove and helped her up. "Are you all right miss?" He asked her with a smile.

"Thanks for that, though I could have gotten out of it by myself." She said picking up her blades and putting them away. She went to leave when she was stopped.

"We need to talk to you." Roy said, Dove gave him a curious look. "What about? I'm sure that your friend there could give you the answers you seek." She said glaring at Drake who looked away from her. Roy turned to her and gave her a questioning look. "What haven't you been telling me?" He asked her. "I'm sorry I was going to tell you, I was just afraid that the General might find out and hurt me again." She said tears welling up in her eyes. Roy gave her a reassuring hug. "Like I told you, I will not let him hurt you any more. So please tell us who killed those two soldiers?"

"It was the two soldiers that said that they had found their bodies, General Hakuro had ordered them to kill them and to make it look like someone else had done it. He know that your people would be coming to look for the idol."

"So he thought that he could frame us for their murder." Dove said finishing what Drake was saying.

"I'm so sorry, when I saw what those men where going to do to you I had to say something I don't want any more innocent people dying because of his greed." Drake said. "Please I want to help you I'm tired of watching as he keeps distroying these peoples lives."

"All right I will take you to see Kiba." She said, Drake bowed she guided them to a church where she went into a secret passage. They came to a large door with to doors with two guards standing in front of them. The guards glared at them as they approached the door.

"Hon'in gozen korede dzuki to-ku motte Kiba." She said to the guards. They bowed there heads and allowed Dove to go in but stopped Roy and his men from entering.

"Senpou motte touhou." She said to the guards, they looked at her for a minute before letting them follow her. "Was that Xinginese?" Breada asked her as they followed her to where it is that they are taking them. "Yes, we are from Xing but I will let Kiba explain everything to you." They carried on walking until they came to what looked like a giant hall. They walked up to a man that was wearing a long black cloak like Dove.

"Gashi Kiba." Dove said bowing her head to show respect. "Gashi, izure korera minshuu?" He asked her pointing to Roy, Havoc, Breada and Drake. "Korera tonogata nozoite touhou." She replied Roy and the others looked confused, Dove turned to them and smiled. "Don't worry I just explained to him that you saved my life." She said seeing the looks that they where given them. Kiba bowed his head to show his gratadude.

"Thank you for saving Hato." He said surprising them because he had spoken to them in Amestrian. "My name is Kiba in your language it means Fang, and you have already met Dove. Now please tell me, why have you come here?" He asked them, Roy bowed his head in a sign of respect so not to seem rude. "My name is Roy Mustang, I am a General in the Amestrian millatery and I would like to try and help you with you problem." Roy said, Fang thought about this. "Why would you want to help us?" He asked him curious.

"Because I once knew a Xinginese man who help me and the people of this country when we where in danger of being destroyed, I owe him for what he did for us." Roy said, it wasn't a complete lie but it was something to help him gain their trust.

"Who is this man who saved you?" Fang asked, Roy looked up at him. "His name is Lin Yao." Roy replied, everyone in the room started talking all at once. Fang Raised his hand to silence everyone. "You know our Emperor?" He said, Roy smirked it looked like Lin managed to reach his goal. "Yes I do, he is a friend of ours." Roy replied, Drake look at Roy with surprised. "You are friends with the Xing Emperor?" She asked amazed

"In that case I am happy to except your help, with you helping us we will be able to find the idol and return it to Xing."

"Does this idol belong to the Emperor?" Roy asked, Fang nodded. "Yes it was given to him by a man who said that it came from Xerxes. The man had golden hair and eyes and looked just like the Western sage from out tails." Roy smiled it sounded like Hohenheim had given the idol to Lin before he had gone home and died.

"I know the man that you speak of his name is Van Hohenheim, he is the father of two of my friends." Roy said, Drake looked even more surprised, Roy had more powerful allias than Hakuro had thought. "So do you have any idea as to where the idol is?" He asked changing the subject, they could talk about this after they had found what they where looking for.

"We believe that when it was stolen the thief stashed it somewhere in this town, we have tried to look for it but the millatery of this country keeps getting in our way." Dove explained, they all talked about the possible places where the idol could be hidden before they went back to the town to start searching.

Roy had an idea of where to look so he went to the farm where the two soldiers had been found, they looked around the farm and came across a chest with a lock on it. "Havoc do you think that you could pick the lock?" Roy asked, Havoc wasn't the best person to ask but he had left Fuery in Central. Havoc looked at the lock. "It looks like the weather has weakened it." He said, he pulled out his gun and shot at it a few times until the lock fell off. They opened the chest and found the golden idol inside of it. Just as they took the idol out and went to walk back to the church, they saw Hakuro and his men standing in front of them with their guns pointing at them.

"I see that you found the idol." Hakuro said with an evil grin on his face. Roy stood there ready to fight and put on his gloves. "You will not have the idol, it belongs to the Emperor of Xing." Drake said, Hakuro just laughed at her. "So, it is true you did run to Mustang for help. How much did he pay you?" He asked laughing. Roy frowned. "You will leave her allow Hakuro." Roy threatened Hakuro just laughed harder. "Oh really? I wonder what you girlfriend would say about this." Hakuro said with an evil smirk. "Leave Lisa out of this." Roy shouted angry that he would try and use her as his weakness. "So it true, you are in a relationship with the Führer's granddaughter." Hakuro said, he reached into his pocket and pulled on a few photo's, one with Roy giving Drake a hug and another with Drake kissing him."I wonder what she would think if she saw these." Roy looked at what Hakuro was holding up in shock. "Now Mustang if you don't want these photo's being sent to your girlfriend I suggest that you give me the idol and arrest the girl for the murder of Smith and Jones." Roy was furious how dare he bring Lisa into this, on impulse Roy gave the idol to Dove and snapped his fingers causing Hakuro and his men to duck for cover.

"Take the idol and head back to Xing, we will deal with Hakuro and his men." Dove didn't argue, she took the idol and ran to the church, her men fighting anyone who got in there way. Hakuro glared at Roy, he thought that he would have given him the idol to save is relationship with Lisa."You traiters, how could you let that murderer get away." Hakuro shouted at them "Oh stop withthe act I already know about how you ordered those men to kill Smith and Jones." Roy said, he turned to Hakuro's men who looked like they where going to wet themselves "You will regret that Mustang." Hakuro said he ran after Dove trying to catch them, but one of her men throw a smoke bomb making it difficult for them to follow. Roy walked up behind them. "No Hakuro I believe that it will be you who will be doing the regretting." Roy said with a smirk. He left Hakuro where he was and headed to the train station, he needed to go back to Central and report into Grumman, he was sure that he would like to hear all about what the General had been doing whilst in the West. As they headed to the station they saw Dove and Fang on top of one station waiting for them. "Adiosu, Honoo Renkinjutsu." Fang said.

"Goodbye, Flame Alchemist." Dove said translating what Fang had just said. They left the roof of the station to head back home to Xing, Roy smiled he could see that Lin had some good people working under him. They waited at the station for there train to arrive, Drake stood with them she had decided to to Central with them so that she could talk to the Fuhrer about what Hakuro had been doing. "Thank you for your help General, and sorry if I might get you in trouble with your girlfriend." Drake said, Roy smiled at her. "You haven't gotten me into any trouble." Roy reassured train arrived and they got on it, Roy sat down and started writing his report so that he could hand it in as soon as he got back.

**Thanks for reading, I am sorry if I wrote the Japanese sentences wrong I was working from an English to Japanese dictionary translating site. If anyone knows Japanese I would be happy for you to help with my translation. Please review.**

***Kohaku - Amber**

***Hon'in gozen Korede dzuki to-ku motte Kiba - I am here to talk with Fang.**

***Senpou motte touhou - They're with me.**

***Gashi Kiba - Greetings Kiba**

***Gashi, izure korera minshuu? - Greetings, who're these people?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fma or anything else**

Back in Central Ed and Izumi had Emily, Michael, Susumu and Nelson running around outside in the courtyard. It had snowed the night before making it more difficult for the soldiers to run. "This is ridicules, why can't we just run inside like we did yesterday?" Nelson asked as he ran with the others trying his best to not slip in the snow.

"Because there is more room out here, and besides the fresh air will do you some good. It isn't healthy to be cooped up inside all the time." Izumi replied, Ed shook his head it wasn't their fault that they had to do paperwork all day, but he supposed that she had a point. He check his watch to see how long they had been running for. "10 minutes I think that's enough for now, we not what to kill them." Ed said signalling for his team to stop running.

"It's only been 10 minutes, I could have ran for 30 and still be OK." Izumi said, Ed shook his head again. "And so could I, but we have only just started training them. Give them time by the summer they will be running a marathon." Ed replied.

"I would love to see that, so when do you want me to start training Emily on her own?" Izumi asked. "Next week, I want them to get some basic training in first before we start throwing them around." Ed replied with a sinister grin.

"All right team you can all go and get some lunch." Ed said to their relief. They all went inside to get changed before heading to the cafeteria. On the way there Ed saw Roy, Havoc and Breada walking towards the Führer's office with a woman that he had never met before.

"Hey General I didn't expect you back so soon, what did you do threaten to burn everyone if they didn't behave themselves?" Ed asked, Roy smirked at him.

"Unlike you Fullmetal I do things without causing collateral damage." Roy replied back, Drake looked at Roy and then at Ed in confusion, she had never seen a superior and subordinate talk to each other like that.

"Colonel Elric, This is Lieutenant Colonel Drake." Roy said introducing them. Ed held out his hand to her. "Hello Lieutenant Colonel it is a pleasure to meet you." Ed said shaking her hand.

"Thank you Colonel Elric. I have heard so much about you." She replied, Ed gave her a smirk.

"So General I take it that you have completed your mission." Ed said giving him a look that said 'how did you do it so fast.'

"Yes Fullmetal I finished my inspection and am now going to report in to the Fuhrer." Roy said holding up his report.

"OK well we are going to go get something to eat before we continue with torturing my men, I'll see you later." Ed said walking of towards the cafeteria. Roy continued walking to the Führer's office wanting to get his report handed in, he had so much to explain to Grumman. When they got to the office Roy knocked and waited for Grumman to ask him in before entering and saluting with Drake standing next to him.

"Lieutenant General Roy Mustang and Lieutenant Colonel Alison Drake reporting in Sir." Roy said standing in front of Grumman's desk.

"Hello General Mustang I never expected you back so soon, I take it that everything has been resolved as we had discussed." He said leaning back in his chair.

"Yes Sir I stopped the corruption that was going on in the West. It is all written in my report." Roy said handing Grumman his report for him to read. "It turned out that the reason the soldiers where causing trouble in the town was because General Hakuro had ordered them to so that he could find an important idol that was stolen from Xing's Emperor." Roy explained. Grumman looked through the report before signing his name on the bottom of it.

"Well done General, the situation down there was more serious then I had thought. I will send some of my men to go there and arrest the General for his crimes." Grumman said, he pick up his phone and asked for his men to come into the office.

"Men it has been brought to my attention that Major General Hakuro has been doing illegal things behind the millatery's back, I want you to go down to Western Command and arrest him and bring him back here so that he can be court marshalled." Grumman said, his men saluted and left the office to go carry out their orders. Grumman turn his attention back to Roy and Alison who was still standing in front of his desk.

"Lieutenant Colonel Drake, for your loyalty and help in this matter I feel that you have proven that you can be trusted to take control of Western Command, so I am promoting you to Colonel and given you your own command and subordinates." Grumman said signing the papers that he needed to confirm that she had been promoted. Alison didn't know what to say, she wasn't expecting to get a promotion she just wanted to stop the corruption that had been happening under Hakuro's command. Roy smiled at her. "Congratulations Colonel Drake." He said giving her a pat on the back, Drake blushed. "Thank you Sir, but I feel that you deserve a promotion more than I do." Alison said bowing her head.

"Don't worry Colonel I haven't forgotten about the General, because you managed to find the idol and stop an inevitable war from happening I am happy to make you a full General, Congratulations." Grumman said signing the papers needed and handing them to Roy who saluted. Grumman added another star to Roy's and Alison's uniform to show that they had been promoted.

"Thank you Fuhrer Grumman Sir." Roy said, Grumman dismissed them so that he could let the court marshals office know about what Hakuro had done. Roy went to his office so that he could let Riza know that he was back.

As Roy walked back into his office he was greeted with Riza and Black Hayate. "Welcome back General." She said walking out of his office with some paperwork for the Fuhrer. She looked up and smiled when she saw that Roy had another star on his uniform. "I see that the Fuhrer was happy with how you comleted the mission." Riza said nodding to his uniform. At Riza's comment everyone else in the room turned to see what she was going on about.

"Wow General you was promoted, congratulations." Fuery said looking at the extra star that he wore. "Hey chief, congrats I knew that you could do it." Havoc said leaning on his desk. Roy smirked at them. "Well of coure, after all the hard work I have been doing for the last couple of months I was bound to be promoted sooner or later." Roy said, Riza rolled her eyes.

"Anyway I wasn't the only one who was promoted." Roy said nodding towards Alison who was standing next to him. "Really? Congratulations Colonel, I can't think of anyone else who deserves it more." Havoc said smiling at her. "Thank you Havoc, the Fuhrer also put me in charge of Western Command." She said looking a little worried, when Hakuro's men find out that she had ratted him out and got a promotion for it they would come after her. Roy could sense what Alison was worried about. "Don't worry Alison I will talk to the Fuhrer and tell him about how Hakuro and his men treated you, I know that he will do something about it. But you also need to show them that you are strong and will not put up with people treating you with that kind of disrespect." Roy said Alison nodded, he was right she had to start standing up for herself.

"Thank you General Mustang, for everything." She said giving Roy a loving look, She left the office and went to find herself somewhere to stay for the night. Riza looked at Roy with concern, she had seen many women give Roy that look and didn't want him to do something that would upset his and Lisa's relationship. Roy saw the look that Riza was giving him.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" He asked hoping that he hadn't done something to upset Riza, he would never hear the end of it from Ed.

"It's not so much of what you have done, it's more like what you haven't done." She said, Roy gave her a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"It's just that I noticed the way she was looking at you, I know that you have giving up your womanising ways, but just be careful. I don't want Alison to get the wrong idea and have it cause problems with you and Lisa." Riza said telling him her concerns, Roy smiled at her.

"Don't worry I have already told her that I have a girlfriend." Roy reassured. "Besides she will be heading back to Western Command in a few days."

"OK if you say so, but if I find out that you are lying..." Riza said reaching for her gun, causing Roy to back away. "Don't worry Riza, I have no intentions of hurting Lisa." Riza nodded, she left the office to go take her finished papers to her grandfather. Roy went into his office to see what papers had come since he had been gone.

Back in the court yard Ed and Izumi where making everyone do push ups because of Nelsons complaining. "Remember that you are all part of a team, anything that you do on a mission reflex's on your team." Ed said putting is left foot on Nelson's back to make him work harder. When they had all done the push ups Ed made them all stand in a line in front of them.

"OK Izumi and I will be asking you all some questions about combat. Every time one of you gets a question wrong, I will make you do more push ups. Understand?"

"Yes Sir." Ed and Izumi asked their questions and was surprised at how many they all got right. Nelson had to do a few more push ups, but other than that they all seemed to know what they where talking about.

"I guest that you was right Ed, they do have potential. They just need to be toughened up a little." Izumi said impressed with how well they answered the questions.

"I told you, so shall we start the combat training tomorrow? Then we can get to the fun part quicker." Ed said with a sinister grin, Emily and the others shivered they weren't looking forward to the 'fun part'. They finished of the day by having them run around the snow covered courtyard again.

In Roy's office Roy and the others where watching Ed's team run around the courtyard making bets on who they thought would fall over first.

"I bet that Griffen falls head first into the snow." Havoc said watching the man struggle with running on the snowy ground.

"I bet that Todds will, look at him he's slipping all over the place." Roy said watching the man slip again but managing to keep his balance.

"You are on." Havoc said hoping that Griffen falls first.

"I will also bet on Todds." Breada said butting his money on the desk. They all watched as both men struggled to keep their balance as Ed and Izumi made them run on the snowy ground. They watched until Todds feet went from under him and he landed head first into the snow, causing everyone in the office above them to laugh.

"Ha ha ha, that was funny we should convince Ed to do this every year." Havoc laughed handing Roy and Breada their winnings. "yeah maybe... next time... we should tell... Full...metal to...ask Hawkeye if...he can borrow...Hayate so that he...can chase them around." Roy said in between laughing.

"What was that about Hayate?" Riza asked walking into the office with said dog following behind her. At the sight of Hayate Breada jumped onto Roy's desk for safety.

"I was saying that Black Hayate could help Ed train his team." Roy said managing to calm himself down.

"I see, and that wouldn't have anything to do with you betting on who will fall over first?" She asks raising her eyebrow. Roy didn't answer.

"Did you come in here to get my finished papers for the Fuhrer?" Roy asked changing the subject. "Yes I did. I would presume that you have finished all of it since you can find the time to watch Ed's training and place bets?" Riza said looking at the papers on his desk, raising an eyebrow at the mess on his desk.

"I have almost finished, I just thought that I would take a quick break before my hand dropped of." Roy said rubbing said hand. Riza shook her head, she went up to the desk to try and find the finished papers so that she could get them handed in on time. Roy helped her sort out the papers so that there was a nice small neat pile of papers that Roy had to get finished. He picked up his pen and started reading the paper on he top of the pile. Havoc and Breada left the office to finish their work, worried about the look that Hawkeye had given them when she had found them slacking off. Riza picked up the finished papers and left the office to hand them into her grandfather.

In the courtyard Ed and Izumi was talking about the next step in his men's training whilst they ran around the yard.

"I was thinking that I should train Todds, Griffen and Wright whilst you train Knotts for two months. After the two month training I will ask the Fuhrer it my men and I could go to the south with you to see how much they have learnt." Ed suggested, Izumi nodded in agreement.

"You want to put them on the island that you and Al trained on when you where kids." Izumi replied. Ed gave her a mischievous smile. "Yes I do, but this time it will be different. I will have them stay on the island for a month, but it will be a survival training. Do you know anyone who could help us like you did with Al and I?" Ed asked slightly shivering from the memory of Mason in his tribal disguise chasing them around the forest as they tried to figure out the riddle that she had given them to solve. Izumi smirked at him, she had an idea what Ed had planned for his team.

"I will ask around, I have a few people who owe me a favour or two. I'm sure that General Armstrong would be happy to help." Izumi replied, Ed signalled his men to stop running, it was nearly four thirty and he wanted to speak to the Fuhrer about what he had planned for his teams advanced training. "That will do for today, I just want you all to do a couple of stretches before you all head to the showers, you wouldn't what to end up with cramp." Ed said, they did what Ed asked and did some stretches before leaving to head to the showers. Ed and Izumi followed them in and headed towards his office so that Izumi could grab her coat, though Ed wondered why she didn't wear it whilst they where out in the courtyard.

"When I get back to the hotel I will call a few people to see if they are willing to help us." Izumi said as she put on her long black coat. "Thank you sensei." Ed said with a smile, Izumi frowned at him. "How many times do I have to tell you? I am no longer yours or Alphonse's sensei? I expelled the both of you for disobeying my teachings." She replied.

"I know Izumi but you will always be our sensei." He replied, he went to his desk and filled out the form he would need if he wanted to go to the South for the rest of his teams training. "OK I am gong to go and see the Fuhrer, there shouldn't be any problems with my request but I will let you know if there is." Ed said, he left his office and headed to the Führer's to talk about what he had planned.

In Roy's office, Roy had just finished signing the last form and put it on the top of the finished pile. "Finally, I never thought that I was ever going to get it all done on time." Roy said to himself, he leaned back in his chair and looked at the phone. 'Maybe I should give Lisa a call, I haven't been able to since I came back from that mission.' He thought, he picked up the phone and dialled the number, it rang for a couple of seconds before someone answered.

"Hello?" Came an unfamiliar male voice, Roy cleared his throat and answered the man.

"Hello this is Roy Mustang, is Lisa there?" He asked.

"I'm afraid that she is taking a shower right now, can I give her a message?" The man asked, Roy didn't know what to say. Why was Lisa having a shower with another man in her apartment? "Hello? Are you still there Mr Mustang?" Roy realising that he hadn't given an answer yet and cleared his throat again.

"Yes can you let Lisa know that I called and tell her that I will try to come to see her tomorrow after work." Roy replied, the man said that he would relay the message and hung up. Roy's heart was ponding in his chest, he wasn't expecting to hear someone else's voice on the other side of the line, and especially not a males voice. He sat there in his leather chair staring out of the window. 'There has to be a reason for that man being at her apartment.' Roy thought unaware that someone had just knocked on his office door. 'And to make it worst she was in the shower at the time.' Roy was completely unaware that someone had just walked into his office and sat down on the couch.

"General?" Ed said to Roy who was clearly deep in thought. Roy didn't hear him and carried on staring out of the window. 'What do I do? I can't just go over to her apartment and demand to know who that man is. I will be basically accusing her of cheating on me.' Roy thought, he didn't know what he should do, it wasn't like he was a saint himself, he had practically been with every woman in Central. Roy's thoughts where disturbed when he heard someone calling his name, he turned around and found that Ed was sat on his leather couch looking at him with concern.

"Oh Fullmetal, I didn't hear you come in. What are you doing here?" He asked, he hadn't expected to see Ed sitting on his couch, he would normally wait for Riza at his office or near the entrance of the building.

"I finished early today and thought that I would wait in here for her." Ed replied like it was normal to walk into someone's office to wait for their girlfriend.

"I see, well she shouldn't be too long, I think that she has gone to file a few things for today." Roy said, Ed gave him a suspicious look it wasn't like Roy to just stare out of the window like that, he would have normally heard him knock on the door. Something was on his mind.

"What's wrong Roy?" Ed asked his friend.

"Nothing is wrong, I was just thinking about what happened on my mission." Roy replied, since he had come back he hadn't really told anyone about what had happened.

"What happened? From what I have heard Hakuro will be losing his job over it. You must have uncovered something big."

"Yes I did, he was after an golden idol that came from Xerxes. It had been stolen from our friend Lin Yao who had sent some of his people to search for it." Roy explained.

"An golden idol from Xerxes? How had Lin gotten this idol in the first place, as far as he told me he had never been to the ruins of Xerxes, and anything that had been left there would have been taking long before he had the chance to search." Ed said a little confused.

"Your dad gave it to him before he left to head to Resembool, apparently he had kept it when he left Xerxes." Roy noticed the way Ed's expression at the mention of his father.

"I'm sorry, it must be hard on you knowing that your father has gone again." Roy said, Ed just shrugged. "It's not like I really know him, even when he stayed with Al and I he didn't try to get close."

"Maybe that's because he knew that he would be leaving you and your brother and didn't want to make it harder than it already was." Roy said trying to make Ed feel better. Ed just looked at him confused.

"What do you mean? It wasn't like he would be leaving forever, he had told us that he would be back once he had sorted out some loose ends."

"Ed come on isn't it about time that you excepted that he is gone?"

"He might be gone but he will be back, he said he would. He promised that he wouldn't let us down again."

"Ed what are you going on about? your father is dead. You told me this yourself."

"What the hell are you going on about? I never said that my dad was dead." Ed said frowning at Roy, he had no idea what he was going on about.

"That day when Al came into HQ with you upset, I asked what was wrong and you said that Hohenheim had died when he had returned to Resembool and that Al's cat had disappeared."

"No I had said that Honey Al's cat at the time had died and that my dad had left to finished some unfinished business." Ed said looking at Roy like he had lost his mind. Roy went bright red. "But you said that you two would be going to the funeral."

"Yes I had said that I was going with Al so that he could bury her." Ed explained, Roy shook his head.

"I am sorry then, I must have misheard what you had said." Roy said bowing his head in embarrassment. "From what I remember you looked as if you had an hangover." Ed commented, Roy was about to respond when Riza walked into the room. She looked at Roy then Ed wondering what was going on.

"Ah Hawkeye, I have finished the papers for the day. You can go home if there isn't anything else you need to do before you leave."

"OK Sir, in that case I will be heading home, is there anything that you need before I go?" Riza asked still wondering about what had happened before she had walked in.

"No there is nothing that I need, I will go and hand these into the Fuhrer and then go home. Have everyone else finished?"

"Yes they have Sir, they are just getting ready to go home themselves." Riza replied.

"In that case I will see you tomorrow Major."

"Goodbye Sir." Roy stood up from his desk and took his finished work to the Fuhrer, Riza grabbed her coat and left the office with Ed who had a big grin on his face.

"Did I interrupted something when I walked into the office?" She asked a little curious.

"Nothing important, just confirming a few things that's all." Ed said he wasn't so cruel as to make Roy's embarrassment worse, he would allow him to do that on his own.

"Do you know if something has been bothering the General? He looked kind of out of it when I went into the office." Ed asked, he had the feeling that Roy wasn't telling him the truth when he had said that he had been thinking about his mission.

"Not that I'm aware off, though he didn't have a break when he came back from his mission, maybe he's just tired." Riza replied, they walked out of HQ and held hands as they walked to Riza's apartment.

Roy went home and was surprised to find Alison standing outside his house. "General Mustang thank god your home." She said, she sounded like she was scared of something.

"Alison what are you doing here?" Roy asked walking up to her, Alison ran up to him and grabbed his arm with a tight grip. "General you have to help me, Hakuro's men are trying to kill me." Roy looked into Alison's eyes and saw nothing but fear, he guided her to his door and unlocked it. "Go and make yourself comfortable whilst I go and call someone to look into this." He said guiding her to the couch. "Would you like a drunk?" He asked. "Yes thank you, do you have anything strong like brandy." Roy went and got them both a drink of brandy before sitting down next to her.

"Now Alison, can you tell me what happened?" Roy asked bringing out a notepad and pen so that he could write down notes. "Well...I was...on the two-way back...to the...hotel that I-I...am st-staying at, when one o-o-of H-Hakuro's...men came after me...saying that they weren't gong to let me g-get away with...betraying him." Alison said in between sobs. Roy wrote down everything that she had said.

"OK can you tell me the name of the man who had said this to you?" Roy asked.

"I-it was first lieutenant Anderson. He had a gun and threatened me with it and tried to shoot me as I ran." She said, she was shaking as she talked and was as white as a ghost. Roy needed to let the Fuhrer know, something had to be done and someone needed to be sent to Western city to question everyone there.

"OK I am just going to ring one of my subordinates to ask them if they can get someone to find and arrest this lieutenant Anderson. Don't worry we will get him." Alison nodded, she knew all of the procedures in these kinds of cases and knew that they would stop Anderson and any other soldier who wanted to avenge Hakuro. Alison sat and watched as Roy stood up and walked over to his phone, as he was about to pick up the phone and dial something came to him. 'How is it that Alison knew where I live? No-one except Riza and the Fuhrer know where he lived.' He turned back around and looked at Alison who was wiping the tears from her eyes trying to calm down. She turned her head slightly and noticed that Roy wasn't on the phone.

"General, what's wrong?" She asked confused as to why he wasn't phoning his subordinates like he said he would. "I just have one more question for you. How did you know that I live here?" Roy asked, Alison froze. She hadn't expected him to ask her that.

"Well...um...you see I had been feeling uneasy for the last couple of days and went to the records room to look up you address in case something happened." Alison replied, Roy was a little bit sceptical. "So you was feeling scared and decided to go into the personal records office to find my address. Why didn't you just come to me at the office?"

"I don't know, I was panicked at the time I didn't know what else to do." Alison replied with tears running down her cheeks. "All right I just wanted to know that's all, I will go and call Riza and-." Just as Roy was talking the phone began to ring causing Alison to jump from the unexpected loud noise.

"Hello, Roy Mustang speaking." He said, he wondered why he always said that when answering the phone at home. It wasn't like he had anyone else living with him.

"Hi Roy, I hear that you rang me earlier." Lisa said. "Yes I did, I was just ringing you to make sure that you was all right." Roy replied. "I am Fine Roy, thank you for the concern. Will you be coming over later or..."

"Roy who is that? I don't like being on my own for to long please come back to the couch soon." Alison said having a drink of the brandy that Roy had given her. Roy froze he couldn't believe that Alison had called him Roy and whilst he was one the phone with his girlfriend.

"Roy who is that?" Lisa asked in a stern voice. "She is just an officer who is having a little problem, that's all. She came over because..."

"What do you mean I'm just an officer? I thought that you like me?" Alison said sounding angry. Roy was at a lost, he didn't know what to do. "Lisa I..." It was too late Lisa had hung up on him, Roy put the phone back down hard and dialled the number for Hughes.

"Hello, Maes Hughes speaking."

"Hello Hughes, I need a favour." Roy said.

"Roy, what is it that you need?" Hughes said in his usual relaxed voice.

"I have Colonel Drake here at my place, she's told me that one of Hakuro's former men is after her and she is scared that he may kill her. Could you look into it for me?" Roy asked.

"Of course Roy, who is it that's after her?" Hughes asked sounding more serious than before. "His name is Lieutenant Anderson." Roy replied checking his notebook.

"All right Roy I will Call Armstrong and start searching for him. Is there anything else that she has told you that could help us?"

"No she hasn't, but I will let you know if she comes up with any new information."

"OK well I will let you know if we find him." Hughes said, he hung up the phone so that he could give Armstrong a call. Roy put the phone down and went back to the couch. He sat down and drained his glass of brandy. Alison moved closer to him so that she could snuggle up to his warmth. Roy moved away slightly so that he didn't give Alison the wrong idea, but each time that he moved she moved with him. "Colonel Drake, you do know that I can't be seen with you like this, people will get the wrong idea about us." Roy said standing up and walking over to the fire place to light it with him gloves. Alison looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean? I'm only here because you are the only person I trust right now." Roy sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I mean that people may think that I am taking advantage of you, when I'm only trying to help you." Roy explained.

"Don't worry about it, I won't tell anyone about this." Alison replied, She stood up and walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She turned him around so that he was facing her. "You are the first person in this damn millatery that has helped me without wanting something else in return, you are the kindest person that I have ever met." She said looking into his deep onyx eyes. She leaned forward and gently placed her lips onto his. Outside of Roy's window Lisa stood and watched in horror as Roy allowed Alison to kiss him, she had come over to talk to Roy about what had happened and to warn this other woman that he was hers, but when she arrived her curiosity got the better of her and she look throw the window to see if she could see them together. Lisa could feel the tears trickle down her cheeks as she turned around and ran away from the house not wanting to see any more.

The kiss didn't last long, and as soon as Roy had realized what had happened he push her away. "I'm sorry Alison, but we can't do this. I have a girlfriend." He said, Roy walked away from her and went to pore himself another drink.

"But Roy, you didn't stop me when I kissed you back in Western city." Alison replied walking over to him and wrapping her arms around him again. "I know and I should have, I am sorry if I made you feel that it was OK. I should have had more control of myself." Roy said turning to face her and putting his hands on her shoulders to keep her at a safe distance. "Can we start again as friends?" Roy asked with a smile, Alison smiled back and nodded. They sat back on the couch and talked about everything that had happened unaware that his relationship with Lisa was in danger.

**Thank you for reading. Please review I love reading what you have to say.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fma.**

Hughes was able to find Lieutenant Anderson and the other soldier that was following him. Hughes and Armstrong arrest the soldiers and took them to HQ to question them. They put them all in different cells and questioned them all separately. A couple of soldiers came to Anderson's cell and escorted him to a interrogation room. In the room was Hughes and Armstrong was sitting at the table that was in the middle of the small room.

"Lieutenant Anderson, I am General Hughes and this is my second in command Colonel Armstrong. Now before we begin our questioning we are to inform you that anything that is said in this room will be written down and recorded in case it needs to be used in court. Do you understand" Hughes said staring at the man who was sitting in front of them. "Yes."

"OK can you confirm your name for us." Hughes asked.

"My name is Kiran Anderson."

"Thank you. Have you been following Colonel Alison Drake?"

"Ha-ha, Colonel Drake now is it?" Anderson laughed.

"Answer the question, have you been following her?" Hughes said annoyed with the man in front of him.

"Yes I have." Anderson replied with a straight face. "Why?"

"Because she betrayed General Hakuro, she deserves to be punished for her betrayal."

"How did she betray Hakuro?" Armstrong asked. This caused Anderson to become angry. "That is General Hakuro to you." He shouted standing up from his chair.

"SIT DOWN NOW!" Hughes shouted back. Anderson sat back down and tried to calm himself down. "Another out burst like that and I will have you restrained. Do you understand Lieutenant?" Anderson just nodded his head. "OK will you please answer the Colonel's question."

"She betrayed us by siding with the Xinginese and Mustang." Anderson replied saying Roy's name like it was poison.

"Did you know that Hakuro had two soldiers killed so that he could put the blame on the Xinginese who where looking for the stolen idol?"

"No I did not know that. Nor do I believe it. General Hakuro cared for his men and wouldn't have any of them killed for any reason."

"Really? So how do you explain the fact that the two soldiers that where found dead at the river bank near the farm happened three days before the Xinginese people arrived?" Hughes asked reading the report that he had received from the investigation department at Western Command.

"I can't explain that Sir." Anderson said bowing his head. Anderson was questioned for two hours before they took him back to his cell. He had confessed two trying to kill Alison along with the men who had been following him and had been charged with attempting to murder a superior officer.

Hughes rang Roy to tell him about what had happened. "Thank you Hughes I'm sure that this will make Colonel Drake more comfortable with being on her own." Roy said happy that the matter had been resolved. He thanked his best friend again and hung up to tell Alison the good news.

"Really? They confessed to trying to kill me?" She asked surprised that Anderson had confessed so easily. Yea, so you will be able to go back to Western Command and take your place as the Commanding officer there." Roy said smiling at her. He escorted her to the hotel that she had been staying at so that she could get anything that she had brought with her, before escorting her to the train station. When they arrived outside the station Alison gave Roy a hug to thank him for everything that he had done for her.

"Thank you Roy, if you ever need anything please let me know." She said as she hugged him. Just as Roy was being hugged by Alison, Lisa was walking by on the other side of the street with her friend Matthew who was the person that Roy had spoken to the other day whilst she was in the shower. Mat as she calls him noticed the look on her face as they walk and asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing I just thought I saw someone that I know. Come on lets go to the moon beam café that Riza recommended to us." She said, they carried on walking to the café.

At the station Roy turned around and saw Lisa walking with Mat, he had tried to ring her and explain that it wasn't like she thought but she wouldn't pick up the phone and if someone did pick up the phone it was Mat. Roy didn't like Mat he didn't listen to him neither saying that her father was right about him and that he should leave her alone. That had made Roy furious, who was he to tell Roy that he could see Lisa. He hadn't even slept with Alison. Was it because Lisa had a guilty conscious? Had she slept with Mat and was hoping that Roy had slept with Alison so that she could put the blame on him? Roy wasn't sure what to think but he would get to the bottom of it.

"I'm sorry if I have caused you problems with your girlfriend. If you want I could talk to her for you, tell her that nothing happened and that she has nothing to worry about." Alison offered but Roy shook his head. "It all right, I'm sure that after a few days everything will be OK again." Roy reassured. "Besides you need to get back to West City." Just as Roy said that Alison's train arrived at the station, she said goodbye to Roy and got on the train. Roy waved goodbye to his new friend then headed back to Central HQ, he had called in to say that he would be late in but he didn't want to push his luck.

When he arrived at his office he was welcomed by icy glares from everyone. "Hi sorry I'm late, I took Alison to the train station to see her off." Roy said in explanation. No-one said anything they just continued doing there work as if he hadn't said anything. Roy was confused, he had no idea what he had done to upset them all. He walked into his office and found Riza putting a pile of papers onto his desk.

"Morning Major." Roy said walking up to his desk to start working, when Riza stopped him. She gave him the coldest stare he had ever seen her give anyone and slapped him right across the face.

"HOW COULD YOU?" She shouted at the top of her voice causing everyone in the outer office to hide under their desks. Roy stood in shock as Riza screamed at him, he had never seen her this angry before and wondered what he had done.

"You told me that you wasn't cheating on Lisa, that you had stopped your womanising ways." Roy rubbed his cheek as he listened to Riza. 'So this is why she is angry.' He thought to himself.

"I have, I haven't been on a date with anyone other than Lisa since we started dating."

"Then explain these." Riza said showing Roy the photos that Hakuro had tried to black mail him with.

"That bastard, I should have burned him and these when I had the chance." Roy said as he looked at the offending photos.

"So you admit it then? You have been sleeping with Colonel Drake behind Lisa's back." Riza said Alison's name with such hatred that it caused a chill to run down Roy's spine.

"No Alison may have kissed me, but I pushed her away and told her that I was seeing someone else." Roy said hoping that Riza would believed him.

"Is this the only time that you two have kissed?" Riza asked, Roy nodded.

"Yes and as I said she is the one that kissed me, you can even asked Havoc and Breada."

"I did and they told me that you didn't hesitate to kiss her back." She said in disappointment. "Stop lying to me."

"I'm not lying to you, I haven't kissed her." Roy said starting to get angry with her.

"Really? So you didn't kiss her last night in front of your fire place?" Roy paled, how did she know that...unless.

"I see, so Lisa wasn't lying. You BASTARD." Riza screeched.

"And HOW, does SHE know that's what I DID HUH? WAS SHE SPYING ON ME?" Roy shouted, he had had enough of people accusing him and not listening to his explanations.

"She told me that she went to your house so that she could talk to you, and when she got there she saw you and that whore locking lips in front of your fire place, that you didn't even resist her."

"Lisa is lying, it is true that she did try to kiss me again, but I pushed her away and told her that I was dating Lisa." Roy said in his defence.

"You mean like Marie lied? Face it Roy once a womaniser always a womaniser."

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU BITCH." Roy screamed, he raised his right hand and slapped Riza across the face causing her to fall to the floor. Just as Roy did this Ed walked in with Havoc and Breada. He saw Riza on the floor with Roy standing over her and ran to him with fists raised.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" Ed shouted, he punched Roy with his auto-mail hand causing in to go flying into his desk, hitting the side of his chest which made him gasp.

"She is a treacherous bitch, I thought that we where friends. But I guess that I was wrong." Roy said standing up and suporting himself with the desk he'd just bumped into.

"She is my cousin, what do you expect me to do when I get a phone call and have to listening to her cry her eyes out because she saw you with another woman, another officer." Riza said trying to stop the tears from falling but failing to.

"Just get out of my office, before I have you both court marshalled for attacking an superior officer." Roy said sitting down in his chair. Everyone glared at Roy as Ed helped Riza to her feet.

"I have known you for fifteen years, and for ten of those years I have turned a blind eye at how you use and abuse every woman you dated, but not any more I..."

"I SAID GET OUT, OR SO HELP ME I WILL HAVE YOU ALL IN THE COURT MARSHALLS OFFICE AND I DON'T CARE WHO YOUR GRANDFATHER IS." Roy screamed. Everyone left the office, Ed and Breada helped Riza to the medical bay so that she could be checked over whilst Havoc went to Grumman's office to tell him what had happened. Roy sat in his office and wiped the blood from his mouth. He knew that he would possible get court marshalled himself for what he had done to Riza, but he didn't seem to care he would deal with that when it comes. In the medical bay the millatery doctor checked Riza over to make sure that she didn't have any more injuries from her fall.

"I told you I'm fine, I'm just a little shocked that's all." Riza said trying to reassure Ed who was still outraged with what Roy had done.

"I can't believe that bastard hit you, you wait till I see him again he'll regret the day he ever laid his hands on you." Ed said as he paced the floor. "I know Ed and I won't be forgetting it. And to think that I used to have feeling for him." Riza said rubbing her bruised cheek. The doctor finished his examination and found that Riza only had some bruising from when she hit the floor. As Riza was putting her uniform jacket on Grumman walked into the room, Everyone stood up to saluted him but he ignored it, he walked up to Riza and inspected the bruise on her cheek.

"Is it true? Did General Mustang do this?" He asked with anger in his voice. Riza just nodded her head.

"OK I want you to tell me what happened." Grumman said pulling up a chair and sitting on it. Riza told her grandfather about the argument that they had had and how Roy blew his top and slapped her. Grumman was furious, he thought that Roy was an officer that could be trusted, but it looked like he had finally shown his true colours. After Riza had told him her side of the story, Grumman asked Ed if Riza could stay with him in his office. Ed agreed and said that she could stay with him whilst he trained his team. Ed and Riza left to continue the training that he had started that morning whilst Grumman went to talk to Roy.

Roy sat in his office thinking about what had happened. 'I shouldn't have hit her, she was only going on what she had been told. And it was true that Alison had kissed me. I should go and talk to her, apologise for what I did.' Roy was pulled out of his thoughts when Havoc opened the door and stood in the doorway.

"Fuhrer Grumman here to see you, Sir." He said with anger in his voice. Roy stood and saluted when Grumman walked in, he had a very serious look on his face as he stood in front of his desk.

"Fuhrer Grumman Sir, what can I do for yo-"

"Drop the act Mustang, you know exactly why I am here." Grumman said not allowing Roy to finish his sentence. Roy bowed his head, he knew that this was coming.

"I hear that you attacked one of your subordinates today, would you mind explaining to me why you did that."

"Well you see Sir, I came in after escorting Colonel Drake to the train station and was greeted with Major Hawkeye insulting me and attacking me for something that I had apparently done to Miss Swan."

"Yes I heard about that, I am disappointed in you."

"But I didn't do anything, I didn't kiss Colonel Drake." Roy said, trying to explain what had happened, but this only made Grumman angrier.

"Are you calling my granddaughter a liar?" He asked given Roy a look that could kill, Roy sighed. There was no way that he could win this, not with the Fuhrer being biased.

"I'm just saying that Lisa doesn't know the full story, and anyway she can talk she's got her "friend" staying at hers, I saw them together earlier and it looked like they where pretty close." Roy said getting fed up with everyone siding with her.

"So you are accusing Lisa of cheating on you is that it? Your pathetic."

"At least I'm not a coward, I haven't been able to get a hold of her, every time a ring she either doesn't answer or HE answers the phone and won't let me talk to her." Roy replied.

"That doesn't give you the excuse to hit Riza, I'm afraid that I will have to Court Marshall you." Grumman said, Roy frowned.

"What will happen to Fullmetal and Major Hawkeye? I hope that they will be punished for attacking me." Roy asked, he wasn't going to be punished when she had hit him first.

"Colonel Elric and Major Hawkeye will not be punished." Grumman replied causing Roy to slam his hands on his desk.

"But SHE hit me first, I demand something to be done about it. Look at what Fullmetal did to my face." Roy said trying to control his anger.

"You hit your female subordinate. I will not tolerate that kind of thing happening in the millatery, not whilst I'm in charge." Grumman said.

"Who is also your granddaughter, I wonder...what would the court marshals office have to say if the found out that you are abusing your power to protect you granddaughter who is also at fault here." Roy replied smirking, Grumman's face went red with anger.

"How dare you try and blackmail me, I am the Fuhrer."

"But it's true, and I won't stay quite about it." Grumman sighed, Roy did have a point. But he couldn't let Roy get away with what he did.

"OK I will transferee Riza to Colonel Elric's command, but you had better say away from her otherwise there will be trouble." Grumman warned.

"Can I at least apologise for what I did? I never meant to hurt her." Roy said with regret in his voice. Grumman agreed and escorted Roy to where Ed was showing his men some fighting moves. When Ed noticed Roy walking towards them he frowned, he stopped what he was doing and stood in front of Riza given Roy a glare that said 'don't you even think about it.'

"Don't worry Fullmetal, I have only come to apologise to the Major." He said, Riza moved Ed out of the way and looked Roy square in the eyes.

"Major I am sorry for the way I reacted, I shouldn't of hit you, can you forgive me?" Roy said bowing his head. Riza frowned he had hit her for no reason and now he expected her to forgive him.

"You broke Lisa's heart, hit me for confronting you about it and expect me to forgive you?" Riza replied, she wasn't going to forgive him that easily.

"And he just threatened to tell everyone about our ties if I reported him to the court marshals office." Grumman said not happy with being blacked mailed in that way, he had always feared that if people found out that they would use it against him but he never thought that Roy would be one on those people.

"So you have gone as far as black mail have you? You discussed me." Riza said she never thought that Roy would sink so low.

"You are the one that started it, you didn't even try to talk to me about it. Not to mention that you brought Marie into this. You know what forget it, I thought that you understood but I guess I was wrong. Goodbye Major." Roy turned around and left before anyone could say anything, he went back to his office ignoring the stares that he received, shut the door behind him and found the hidden bottle of whiskey that he had stashed there in case he ever needed to drink his sorrows away. He had a pile of paperwork to do but he didn't care, why should he when no-one cared if he succeed or not?

In the courtyard Ed's team stood and watched the scene play out in front of them, it was obvious that Ed wasn't in a good mood and that would mean that their training would be made harder. Ed talked to the Fuhrer as his men stood and waited for their orders not daring to move in case it upset their superiors even more. Ed and Riza finished talking to the Fuhrer before he left.

"All right men I afraid that there will be a few changes, Major Hawkeye has by transferred to my command, I know that you all know about the relationship that the Major and I are in. Do any of you have any concerns with Major Hawkeye joining our team?" Ed asked wanting his teams input, he wanted them to trust him and didn't want to do anything that would upset or make them uncomfortable. They all looked at each other and then smiled.

"We have no problems with the Major joining the team, it will mean that Emily will have someone to talk about girlie things." Griffen said causing everyone to laugh. "Thank you." Riza said a little sad, she would miss Havoc and the others but she didn't want to have anything with that General bastard, he had crossed the line and it would take a lot for her to forgive him.

"OK I'm going to go and find Izumi and Emily to let them know what has happened, could you continue the training for me Riza, I'll try to be as quick as I can." Ed asked.

"Of course, I will have them show me what they have already learnt." Riza replied, Ed went to find Izumi as Ed's team showed of the skills that they thought could do quit well.

Back at Roy's office Hughes walked in and was worried with what he saw, Roy was leaning in his chair with a glass of whiskey in his right hand, the papers that he was supposed to be signing where all over the floor after Roy had knocked the stack and hadn't been bother to pick them up. Roy turned to the sound of someone entering the room and frowned when he saw Hughes, he knew that his best friend wouldn't approve with what he was doing and didn't what to have to listen to yet another lecture that day.

"Roy what are you doing? Are you completely out of your mind?" Maes asked, Roy didn't answer him, he just sat there and continued to drink his whiskey like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Roy what happened? Is it true that you hit Riza?" Hughes asked, Roy just stayed quite hoping that if he pretended that he wasn't there that maybe he would go away.

"Roy answer me, I just want to know what happened." Roy wasn't listening causing Hughes to become angry which was a rare sight.

"STOP IGNORING ME ROY I WANT TO HELP." He shouted hoping that that would cause a response from him. Roy sighed, Hughes wasn't going to leave him alone until he told him what happened.

"Yes it is true." He said draining his glass and pouring himself another, Hughes looked like he was in shock.

"Why? What did she do to deserve that?"

"She accused me of cheating on Lisa and when I said that Lisa was lying she said that it was no wonder that Marie left me." Roy said, Hughes shook his head.

"Maybe you should start from the beginning." Maes suggested, Roy told Hughes everything that had happened.

"So that's why you hit her, because she had hit you first with no explanation?"

"yes, I just lost it. And when I tried to apologise she just throw it back in my face. Lisa won't talk to me to allow me to explain what had happened and now after today I doubt she would want to have anything to do with me again. I don't know what to do Maes."

"Well first things first I think that you should stop drinking that stuff and apologise to Fuhrer Grumman for black mailing him like you did." Roy nodded, he put the bottle away and tried to stand up, Hughes saw him struggling and said that he would go down to the Führer's office and tell him that Roy had something that he wanted to talk to him about. He left the office and ordered Havoc to make sure that Roy didn't drink any more of that whiskey and headed to Grumman's office.

It took some convincing but Hughes managed to get Grumman to listen to what Roy had to say. They walked into the office causing Roy to jump up to salute and fall flat on his face, Hughes ran over and helped him back into his seat, Grumman just stood there and shook his head in disbelief.

"Fu...Fuh...rer Gru...Grumman S-Sir, I-I'm so sorry f-for what I d-did (Hick), p-please for-give me, I w-wasn't thinking when...I made t-that t-threat (Hick)." Roy said slurring his words.

"I know General, I'm not happy with what has happened today. But I am willing to give you another chance. Just don't mess up again." Grumman said, he had known Roy for a long time and knew that he was a good man though he could be impulsive sometimes.

"Oh t-thank you s-sir...I will n-not let y (Hick) you down a-again." Roy promised, Grumman told Roy that he could have the rest of the day off since he wasn't in any fit state to work and asked Hughes if he could drive him home. On the way to Roy's house Roy wouldn't stop going on about how much he loves Lisa and that he wanted to try to get her back.

"You really do love her don't you?" Hughes asked, Roy nodded.

"B-but she will n-never listen to mm-me, what should I do?" Roy asked.

"I think the first thing you should do is concentrate with convincing Riza to forgive you, the Fuhrer has given you some leave because he thinks that you are working yourself to hard. I will talk to Ed and Riza tomorrow and explain to them what you have told me today, I'm sure that Riza will forgive you eventually just give her time." Hughes said he knew that Riza was upset about what had happened and wants to talk to her, she wasn't unreasonable and was bound to understand once she knew the full story. They got to Roy's house and Hughes unlocked the door and helped Roy inside. He made Roy a cup of coffee and searched the house for any more alcohol, the last thing they needed was Roy beginning completely drunk and going to Lisa's house to confess his love to her. He took any bottles of brandy or whiskey that he could find and confiscated them for the time being, to Roy's horror.

"Don't worry I will let you have them back when I know that I can trust you with them. And don't bother going to the bar, I'm going to tell the bartender that you are not to be served until I say so." Hughes said, Roy pouted. He sat down in his chair next to the fire and drank his coffee. Once Hughes thought that Roy would be all right he left to head back to work.

Back at HQ Izumi had been furious when Ed told her what Roy had do. It took everything that Ed had to stop her from going to his office and demonstrating some of her moves for Emily on Roy.

"I hope you hurt him Ed." Izumi said finally calming down.

"I punched him with my right fist." Ed replied. Izumi smirked. "Good, I hope that you made that woman hitter bleed." It was Friday afternoon and Emily and Michael had gone to their first aid class so Izumi and Ed had decided that Fridays would be the only day when they wouldn't be training all day. They all went back to Ed's office and talked about what their plans where for the wedding.

"Have you two decided where your going to get married?" Izumi asked.

"We have decided to get married in May, I'm going to ask Colonel Armstrong if we could get married in his family home." Ed replied he didn't have to read or sign an paperwork because the Fuhrer had said that he will give them to other people whilst he trains his men.

"You know we could go home since we don't have anything else to do." Riza said. Ed and Izumi agreed there was no point of them being in there office if they didn't have any work to do. They stood up and went to put on their coats when someone knocked on the door. Ed opened the door and found that it was Hughes.

"Ed, Riza I need to talk to you." He said walking in and sitting down on the couch.

"Let me guess, General Mustang went crying to you did he?" Riza said, Hughes gave her a worrying look, he had never heard her talk like this about anyone before. She must have picked up some of Ed's traits.

"He didn't come crying to me, I went to him. I heard about what had happened and wanted to know if it was true." Hughes replied. "He was sitting in his office drinking himself to death."

"Well that shows how pathetic he is." Izumi said getting ready to leave.

"He gets depressed easy, normally he can handle it a bit better because he has people to support him. But this time he was left on his own, I had to order Havoc to watch him whilst I went to talk to the Fuhrer about it." Hughes said looking directly at her.

"This isn't my fault, he was the one who cheated on my cousin." Riza said in her defence. "That is between Lisa and Roy, you are his subordinate any personal business must be left at home. You of all people should know this." Hughes replied.

"I know I shouldn't of reacted like I did, but don't forget that he was the one that had Colonel Drake at his house." Riza said angry with the fact that Roy had cheated on Lisa with Drake.

"Did you ask Roy why Colonel Drake was at his house?" Hughes asked, Riza shook her head. "Why else would she be there, we all know what that bastard is like with his woman." Riza replied bitterly.

"She was there because one of Hakuro's former men was trying to kill her. Roy never invited her over, she had invited herself." Riza was shocked.

"If that is the case then why didn't the General say something?" Ed asked in Riza's defence.

"He never said anything because he wasn't given the chance to, you and Riza was so convinced that he must have done what you had heard that you didn't want to hear what he had to say." Hughes replied. Seeing that this had nothing to do with her, Izumi stood up and left the office. Riza bowed her head in shame, maybe she did jump the gun a little.

"But look at what he did to her, you can't tell me that you condone what he did?" Ed said pointing to the bruise on her cheek.

"I do not condone the way he handled the situation and have already given him a lecture for it, but you have to admit that you are no better than him." Hughes replied.

"I don't go around hitting woman."

"No but you do go around attacking a superior officer, which is a court marshals offence. You are lucky that the Fuhrer saw it from your point of view otherwise you all could be in big trouble." Ed nodded in agreement, even he couldn't deny that logic.

"Just think about it, that's all I ask." Hughes said, he left the office to head back to his leaving them with there thoughts.

**Will Riza be able to forgive Roy for what he had done? Find out in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed. If you like or dislike then review.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own fma**

**Warning there are suggestions of adult situations and some swaring.**

It was a week before Roy went back to work, he walked into the outer office and noticed that no-one was there. "I guess that they haven't arrived yet." He said he walked into his office and started on his work. It was three hours later that he had a knock on his door.

"Come in." He said in a tired voice.

"General Mustang, sorry to disturb you." Riza said standing near the door. Roy just nodded and signalled her to sit down on the couch.

"I just wanted to apologise, I should have known better then to attack you like that." Riza said in an timid voice uncharacteristic to her. Roy had never seen her sound so timid, he stood up and sat next to her, given her a hug.

"Of course I forgive you." Roy said. "And I hope that you can forgive me for my stupidity."

"Um I don't know...I suppose I can, if you manage to convince me that you are worth forgiving." Roy cringed, he didn't like where this was going.

"I won't have to walk around in a mini skirt again sing will I?" He asked Riza laughed.

"No no nothing like that, though now that you mention it that could be fun." Riza said giggling, she still remembered the last time they had made him do that, she wasn't even able to look at him without laughing which caused a lot of people to wonder what Ed had done to her.

"Ed needs someone to demonstrate some fighting moves with and Al is in Rush Valley and unable to come due to a job that he is currently doing." Riza said with a smirk Roy paled, he had seen how well Ed could fight and didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

"Is there anything else I could do? Work in the kitchen? Do your and Ed's laundry for a month? I will even walk around HQ in a skirt again." Roy begged which was something that he swore he would never do. Riza was amused, she had always wanted to see Roy beg and at her mercy, if she had known that it was this easy she would have done it a long time ago. In the other office Havoc and the others was watching through the door as Roy throw away all of his dignity, trying not to laugh because they didn't want to be caught they stood and watched waiting to see what Riza would do.

"Sorry Roy but it isn't me that you should be talking to, though I do appreciate the other suggestions." Riza said with a smile. Roy bowed his head in humiliation, there was no way that she would ever let this go and he was sure that Havoc and the others where watching the show as well. 'There has to be a way out of this.' He thought looking around the office, he stopped when he noticed the paperwork on his desk.

"I'm afraid that I may not be allowed to assist Fullmetal even if I wanted to, I have my own responsibilities you know and I wouldn't want the Fuhrer to get angry with me because I have been shirking my own duties to help out someone else on a whim."

"Oh don't worry about that Ed went over to talk to the Fuhrer when you was 'on leave' last week, it will only be for an hour a day. Though you will still have to have the work finished before the end of the day." Riza said with a huge grin on her face. Roy sighed in defeat, there was no way that they where going to let him out of this easily, all he could do was allow himself to become Ed's punching bag for an hour a day and hope that he wasn't too badly hurt in the process.

"OK what time does he want me?" He asked her slouching into the couch. "Not until four, so I suggest that you get that paperwork finished and handed in by then." She replied she turned and faced the door ready to leave when she said. "And that goes for the rest of you, get back to work." There was the sound of rushed feet and men sitting down in a hurry before she opened the door and left the office, Roy sat back at his desk and started reading he had four and a half hours to get his work finished and handed in.

At four Ed and his men stood in the court yard waiting for Roy to arrive so that they could start the training, though his men didn't really need to be shown a demonstration to help them train, it was a good excuse to throw Roy around without being sent to the court marshals office. He noticed Roy walk out of the locker rooms and tried to hold back the laughter, Roy was wearing white millatery shorts that looked like they where a size to small and a pink t-shirt with the words 'I love dogs' written on it. Underneath the writing was a cute little puppy with big eyes. All of Ed's men couldn't take it they all bust out laughing and was rolling around the ground, Ed had a wicked grin on his face, it had took him three days to find that t-shirt and now he was glade that he had made the effort. Roy walked over to where Ed was standing with a massive blush across his cheeks. Ed ordered his men to stand up and get into line, causing them to instinctively jump up of the ground and stood to attention.

"All right team I want you all to take close attention to what I am going to be showing you today because the slightest mistake could cost you or your team mates lives." Ed said in his 'I'm not taking any crap' tone, everyone just nodded.

"I am going to be demonstrating to you some moves with the help from General Mustang." Ed explained, Michael, Nelson and Susumu all sat on the ground at a safe distance so that they wouldn't be in the way. Ed told Roy to stand behind him like he was going to attack from behind. Roy did as he was told as stood behind Ed, with out anything instructions Roy went to grab Ed and pin him to teach him a lesson for the whole swapping his millatery training uniform for a girlie one. He grabbed Ed on his shoulder to pull him down when he realised his mistake and was thrown to the floor with his left arm in a tight arm bar, Roy could feel all of the muscles in his arm tense and he thought that his shoulder was going to be pulled out of his socket.

"Did you see what I did there? The General was foolish enough to think that he could grab me and pin me from behind, but with the position that he was in put him in a disadvantage." Ed explained. "Now I would like you all to practice doing that on the crash mats that have been provided for us." Ed said pointing to the mats that had been brought out for them. Roy glared at Ed, who gave him a evil smirk back. He helped him up and took him over to Nelson.

"Because there are only three of you and for obvious reasons you can't train with Emily the General here will be your partner." Ed said, he sat back and watched as Roy got thrown around by the Second lieutenant with glee. 'This will teach him to hurt Riza and her family.' He allowed them to practice and helped when needed before moving to the next move he wanted them to learn. By the end of the hour Roy ached all over, he had been thrown around that much that he back and shoulders hurt and he was sure that he was going to have bruises. He went home that evening exhausted and had a long hot bath to help with his aching muscles, wondering what Ed would do to him the next day.

The week went by slowly for Roy as he went throw the torture of being thrown, kicked, punched and put in to submission locks. When Friday was over he went home and rested his poor abused body, having had Hughes drive him home because his legs wouldn't work, he sat in his chair and relaxed with a glass of brandy that Maes had returned to him. "Here you are Roy I have but everything so that it is in reach for you, is there anything else that you needed me to do?" He asked concerned that his friend may try to get something himself and causing more damage to his already pulled muscles.

"No thanks Hughes you have already done enough, why don't you go home to your family I bet that Gracia has dinner waiting for you at home." Roy said reassuring his friend who didn't want to leave him.

"But what if you try to get up for something and end up pulling an ligament or something. It's not like you don't exercise a lot or anything so you body isn't used to it like Ed's is." Roy gave Hughes a shocked look. "Are you calling me fat?"

"No I'm just saying that it has been awhile since you have had to do this kind of training and I don't want you to end up in the hospital with a long term injury." Hughes explained.

"Thanks for the concern Hughes, but I don't think that Fullmetal would be stupid enough to put me in the hospital." Roy said, Hughes gave Roy a worrying look.

"I don't know, he could do it and say that it happened when a move went wrong when he was showing it to his men, and that you didn't fall correctly." Hughes said, Roy thought about this for a moment and went completely white.

"Oh no, Hughes I think that Fullmetal is trying to torture me to death." Roy said panicking, Hughes patted his shoulder and tried to calm him down.

"I don't think Ed would do such a thing, I think that the most he will do is try to put you in the hospital for revenge for sending him and his brother on all of those dangerous missions that used to get him sent to the hospital and getting attack by Winry for his auto-mail being broken." Hughes replied saying his thoughts out loud.

"It's not like I did that on purpose you know, he was the one who wanted thoughs missions." Roy argued.

"But your the one that wouldn't give him the correct information, and lets not forget all of the short jokes you used to do." Hughes replied. "Come on Hughes you know as much as I that we weren't always given the correct information our selves, it wasn't my fault that I could give him the info he needed."

"What about the..." Hughes was cut off by the phone ringing, he picked it up so that Roy didn't have to strain himself and answered.

"Hello this is Maes Hughes speaking." He said like he was in his own home, Roy frowned at him and tried to get the phone of him but found that he couldn't move.

"Yes he's here. It's for you." Hughes said with a smile on his face. "Of course it's for me this is my house." Roy said before taken the phone. "Hello?"

"Roy it's Lisa." Roy was shocked he thought that Lisa wouldn't talk to him again, not after what he did.

"Hey Lisa this is a surprise, I thought that you never wanted to see me again." Roy replied wondering why she was calling him. Maes left the room to give Roy some privacy.

"Riza called me last week and told me what happened." Roy's heart sunk to the pit of his stomach. 'Is she going to have a go at me for what a did to Riza?" He thought.

"She told me that you was helping the woman, that she was a friend of yours from West City and that she was the one who was trying to seduce you. I'm so sorry that I wouldn't listen to you." She said with regret in her voice. Roy was once again surprised, he had never thought that Lisa would apologise.

"That's OK Lisa, I should be the one who should be apologising, I didn't exactly..."

"I know and that's why I want to talk, is it OK if I come over?" She asked interrupting him, Roy smiled for the first in a week. "Of course you can, I will have Hughes leave the door unlocked so that you can let yourself in." He said goodbye and hung up so that she could get ready to come over. Thirty minutes later there was a knock at the door, Hughes had rang Gracia and had told her that he would come home once Lisa had arrived so that he could keep an eye on him, which annoyed Roy to no ends.

"Good evening Miss Swan." Hughes said as he was leaving the house to go home to his family.

"Good Evening General Hughes." Lisa replied bowing her head. She went in side and saw Roy sat in the chair with a table that had a fresh pot of tea ready that Hughes had prepared for when she arrived. Roy slowly tried to get up so that he could pour them both a cup but Lisa stopped him and poured the tea instead.

"Riza told me about the 'training' that you are going through right now, are you alright?" She asked with her voice fall of concern. Roy just nodded looking into her beautiful hazel eyes he had almost forgotten how beautiful her eyes were.

"Roy?" Roy snapped out of his stare and took the tea that was being handed to him, Lisa smiled at him and sat down on the couch.

"So does your dad know that you are here?" Roy asked, Lisa sighed she wished that her father would just let her get on with her life.

"No he doesn't, and he doesn't need to know. This is between you and me and I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of having to talk through other people to communicate." Lisa replied.

"I am, and I want to make things right." Roy said trying to get up again and this time managing to succeed, he limbed over to the couch and sat down next to her so that he could cuddle up close to her.

"Lisa I'm sorry about what I did, I should never have allowed her to..."

"It's aright Roy I know that it is difficult to change who you are, and I don't want you to, just try not to flirt with every girl you see OK." Lisa said cutting into his sentence, Roy smiled at her.

"Lisa if we are going to be in a relationship then I feel that I need to be completely honest about my past." Roy said bowing his head, he wasn't proud about what he had done, but he had to tell her so that he knew that he wasn't hiding anything from her and that he could be truly honest.

"Roy what is it, there isn't someone else is there?" Lisa asked worried, Roy shook his head. "No nothing like that, it's just something that you are going to need to know if this relationship is going to work." Roy answered, he took a deep breath and finished of his tea before continuing.

"After the war I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted at Eastern Command as the superior officer, everything was going great the war was over I had a new team and I was the youngest officer to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in Amestrian millatery history. Then I met Marie, She was beautiful with wavy brunette hair and emerald green eyes, she was the first girl that I ever fell in love with and the first to break my heart." Roy said, he reach over to the table that had been moved closer to the couch by Hughes and poured himself a drink. Lisa sat there not saying a word she wanted to hear the full story before she said anything. Roy drained his glass and poured another two glasses and handed one to Lisa.

"It all started out with a few dates everything seemed like nothing could go wrong until we started living together, I have nightmares about the war and one night I wake up and found Marie on the other side of the room scared out of her mind, she had told me that when I had started flaying my arms about she was afraid that I might hit her and moved, but her eyes said differently, so I told her everything about what had happened in the war and all the horrible things I was forced to do. She was disgusted, she left the house calling me a monster saying that I should be executed for what I had done not rewarded and branded a hero. Three days later there was an article in the paper about me, Marie had gone to the Eastern express and told them that I was a murdering monster that beats and abuses woman and uses my power to get what I want. It almost destroyed me, if it wasn't for the fact that I had a few superiors that believed in me and helped chase the rumours away I would have probably ended up in prison with all of the soldiers who did murder on the battle field." Roy continued.

"I found out a week later that Marie was using me and had used the money she got from selling my story to go away with her 'real' boyfriend. That's why I act the way I do around woman, why I won't open up to much." Lisa nodded it all started to make sense now.

"So you don't go away hitting woman?" Lisa asked, Roy looked at her with regret. "No Riza was the first woman that I had ever hit and it will be the last. I never meant to hurt her."

"I believe you, and thank you for telling me this it means a lot to me to know that you trust me enough with this." Lisa said smiling at him, she put her glass down and gave him a hug. "Don't worry I won't ever do anything like that to you, and we don't have to rush into anything."

"What about Matthew? He seems to like you a lot." Roy asked, he knew how it sounded but he had to make sure, he had been screwed over too many times and he wasn't going to take any risks.

"Matthew is just a friend and nothing more, you have no need to feel threatened." Lisa reassured. They sat there and talked for most of the night until Lisa decided that it was time to go home, she help Roy up the stairs and to his room before leaving the house and locking the door with the spear key that Roy had given her.

At Ed's apartment he and Riza was sitting on the couch quietly talking to each other. "It was a delicious dinner, I should make you cook more often." Riza said smiling at her future husband, Ed laughed.

"That was nothing you should try my brothers cooking he makes my meals look and taste like crap." Ed replied.

"Speaking of Alphonse have you heard anything from him?"

"Yea he called the other day apparently my dad was over there a few days ago surprising him, he said that he is coming here to Central to stay since there isn't anything left for him in Resembool." Ed said.

"So it seems that he is finally settling down." Riza said pouring them a glass of wine.

"Yea, it kinda feels strange three years ago I would never of pictured myself here with you, I always thought that I would have to sacrifice myself in order to get Alphonse back to normal."

"But you didn't." Riza said smiling at him.

"Thanks to my dad, he did the one thing that I had been trying to do for four years, and I never thanked him. Even when he was living with us here to help me take care of Al I didn't say it, I guess my pride wouldn't let me." Ed replied with the hint of regret in his voice. Riza looked into his bright golden eyes and gave him a reassuring smile.

"It isn't too late you know, you can still tell him." She said, Ed blushed no matter how many time she did this he always blushed, he leaned forward and kissed her softly. Riza put her right hand on the back of his head and deepened the kiss flicking her tongue on his bottom lip asking for entrance, he opened his mouth and allowed her to explore inside with her tongue before doing the same with her until they needed air and pulled away panting. Ed's blush had become a darker shade of red and his pants where feeling a little tight. Riza noticed Ed awkwardness and smirked, she always knew how to get him going.

"Ed you know that there isn't anything to be ashamed of, we have been going out for two years now, don't you want to go to the next level?" She asked, Ed's blush became even deeper as he turned to look away from his fiancée.

"It's not that I don't want to, I just want to wait until we are married. You know do things the traditional way." This causing Riza to look at him in surprise.

"Since when are you into traditions?" She asked a little confused, it wasn't like Ed to follow traditions, he usually did things his own way not wanting to be like everyone else.

"I don't usually, but it was the only thing that I was brought up to believe in, I don't believe that it is right to do that kind of thing with a girl if your not willing to spend the rest of your life with her." Ed explained, now it was Riza who was blushing she knew that Ed was a gentleman but she never expected him to have those kinds of morals, especially with the way he grew up.

"Ed I never knew that you felt like this, I'm so sorry if I have been making you feel uncomfortable." Riza said looking away "But you know that we don't have to..."

"I don't want to do anything like that until are wedding night, that way it will be even more special." Ed replied turning Riza's head so that she was facing him again. "I love you Riza and I will treat you with the respect that you deserve." He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. They both noticed the time and decided that it was time for them to go to bed, Riza stayed in the spare bedroom whilst Ed went into his room, it might have seemed odd to other people who if they had been watching but Ed didn't care, their relationship would stay like this until they had said those two every special words that proved their love to one another.

A week later Roy and Lisa was officially back together again to her father's horror, they had spoken about what had happened and about their pasts and now thought that their relationship was a lot stronger now than it ever was, Roy had even invited Lisa and her parents to his house so that they could try and resolve any issues that they may have with one another. Lisa's father had straight out refused saying that no amount of bribing was going to convince him that he wasn't a murderer, but Lisa's mother had argued with him saying that he will never be able to allow their daughter to live her own life because he couldn't let go of his hatred for alchemists and pointed out that it was Berthold that had allowed his sister to die not Roy. It took some convincing but eventually he agreed saying that he was doing it for his wife and daughter and if Roy did anything wrong he would never let Roy forget it.

This had made Roy nerves, he wanted to impress Lisa's parents and was afraid of doing the slightest thing wrong. He had asked Lisa what her father's favourite dinner is and asked Al for the recipe. Hughes knowing that Roy would became so nerves that he would most probable cause something to go wrong offered to help Roy make his home look presentable, he and Elisha tided up the house whilst Roy went to Ed to ask if he could fix the statue that he had broken the night he had gotten drunk and smashed everything, he had been meaning to get it fixed but didn't want to go to Ed and have to owe him a favour but it turned out that Ed wasn't like that any more and fixed the statue with the aid of a picture of it so that it didn't end up looking demonic.

"Here you go Mustang, good as new." Ed said handing Roy the now fully repaired statue. "Thank you Fullmetal, I very much appreciate it." Roy said putting the dragon statue away in a padded box that Ed had also made for him to keep it safe.

"That's OK General, I now how important this is for you." Ed replied with a smile.

"Well I have to go now, I'm sure that you have some more training to do." Roy said heading towards the door to leave.

"Actually...I have something that I want to ask you." Ed said nervously sitting down on the couch. Roy turned around and sighed.

"I knew that it was to much to hope for, what is it that you need?" He asked standing near the couch.

"It's nothing like that I just what some advice about something that's all, you don't even have to give it me if you don't want too." Ed replied bowing his head, Roy sighed again and sat down next to him.

"OK Ed what's the problem? You know that you can talk to me." Ed snored at that, it was true that Roy was like a father figure to him when his dad wasn't around, but it didn't mean that he felt comfortable talking to him. "Well...you see...I..."

"Ed just spit it out, it can't be that bad can it?" Roy said becoming annoyed, Ed took a deep breath.

"I wanted to ask you about sex." Ed said, Roy looked at him like he had two heads.

"Ed your twenty-one you can't tell me that you don't know anything about sex?" Roy said, this caused Ed to blush. "Well...I..."

"OK Ed, I'll tell you, when a man and a woman love each other very much..."

"I KNOW THAT YOU BASTARD, I JUST WANT YOU TO JUST HELP ME WITH SOMETHING OK." Ed shouted in annoyance. Roy giggled, he couldn't believe that Ed hadn't done that with Riza yet, it looked like he had lost that bet.

"WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?" Ed screamed, causing Roy to laugh harder.

"You...you mean that you...and Riza haven't..."

"No we haven't, unlike you I have morals." Ed replied causing Roy to stop laughing and glare at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked in an angry voice.

"I mean that I intend to wait until we are married, unlike you who just treat woman like your play thing." Ed replied angrily, Roy was furious how dare he judge him after the sins he had committed himself.

"Oh really so that means that I don't have morals does it, well I admit that I USED to treat women like that, but I'm a changed man now." Roy said standing up to leave again. "Besides you can talk last time I checked you didn't have morals either, or was it some other Elric who committed the ultimate taboo and costed his little brother his body." Roy said, Ed was now seeing red he grabbed Roy shirt collar and went to hit him when he stopped and let go to Roy's surprise.

"I may have made a mistake, but a fought and made everything right again unlike you who just wallows in self pity and drinks himself blind." Ed countered, he walked over to his desk and sat down pretending to work whilst waiting for Riza to meet him for lunch.

"You mean your father fixed it, if it wasn't for him you both would probably be dead now." Roy said, he wasn't going to let Ed get the better of him, but Ed just ignored him. Roy wasn't going to stand around and wait for Ed to apologise for what he had said, he walked out of the door and slammed it shut causing Ed to jump. "Bastard."

On the way back to his office Roy realised that he had left his dragon statue in Ed's office, sighing he turned around and headed back to retrieve his property before it was destroyed again. He walking into the office and went to knock when to heard Ed sobbing in the the room.

"Stupid bastard, why did he have to go and bring that up, it's not like I haven't suffered enough and I thought that he understood. But I guess I was wrong and to think that I was going to ask him about how to..." Roy was in shock, he had only ever seen Ed cry once and that was because of what Tucker had done to his dog and daughter. He contemplated leaving and asking Riza if she could bring the statue back for him saying that he had left it there, but that would lead to questions and he didn't want anyone to know that this had happened, but he also didn't want to walk into the office and get it himself in-case Ed got embarrassed because of him walking into the office and seeing him cry.

'What do I do? Either way I'm going to make this situation worse.' Roy thought, he decided to leave and talk to Ed about it later but stopped when he heard footsteps heading towards the office. 'Shit,t that must be Riza coming to meet Ed for lunch if she sees me leaving and then notices that Ed's been crying then she will know that I have done something.' Panicking he turned towards the door and acted like he was going to knock when Riza walked into the room.

"General I wondered what was taking you so long, I hope that you will be making up the time." Riza said frowning at him, Roy straighten up and looked at her with a look that said 'sorry I need to deal with something.'

"I was going to come straight back but Ed said that he wanted to talk to me about something in private." Roy said in explanation.

"Oh is something wrong?" Riza asked concerned.

"No it's um...he wants to have a man's talk you know?"

"OH in that case I will leave you two to talk, let me know when you have finished OK." Riza said leaving the office again. Roy stood near the door for a moment knowing that Ed would have heard his voice outside the door and would be composing himself. He knocked on the door then walked in giving Ed time to put up his mask.

"Hey Fullmetal about before..."

"Here this is the reason you came back isn't it." Ed interrupting handing Roy the box with his dragon in it. Roy was lost for words he should have known that Ed would have figured out why he was there.

"Yes (sigh) but I also wanted to apologise for what I said, I shouldn't have never..."

"No you shouldn't of." Ed said interrupting Roy again. "Will you stop interrupting me, I know that I crossed the line but you shouldn't of said what you said either."

"Do you even know how childish you are sounding right now?" Ed asked, Roy frowned.

"Look I'm just saying that we where both to blame." Roy replied trying to prevent another argument.

"Well thank you for the apology." Ed said sitting back down at his desk and looking out the window. Roy didn't know what to do, before they would get into and argument Roy would throw in some short jokes and it would turn into a game of who can annoy the other the most, but now that the situation had changed, he couldn't call Ed short because he was the same height as him and he would be calling himself short which wouldn't work as well.

"Was there something else General?" Ed asked noticing that Roy was still in his office. Roy blinked he didn't realise that he had been staring.

"Well actually Edward there was, I just wanted to let you know that where to find me if you want to have that talk, and I'm sorry for laughing earlier that was very immature of me." Roy replied, he checked to make sure that he had his box before heading to the door.

"Actually General I would it be OK if we have that talk now? Seeing as you told Riza that you would be." Ed said causing Roy to turn around and smile.

"Yea sorry about that, it was either telling her or lying to her and at the moment with everything that has been going on I'd rather not piss her off by lying to her." Roy explained, Ed nodded in understanding. "I know what you mean." Ed and Roy had there talk and after an hour Roy had to go back to the office before Riza came looking for him again. Ed had apologised for what he had said earlier and Roy told him that if he ever wanted to talk again that he shouldn't hesitate to ask.

When Roy was finally allowed to go home, he was surprise to see what Hughes had done to his house.

"Uncle Roy look what I got you." Elisha said running up to him with a picture frame that she had bought herself, Roy didn't know what to say she had bought him a gold frame with silver indentions of dogs on it, for the second time that day Roy was speechless. In the kitchen Maes was making Roy a cup of coffee.

"Elicia sweetheart Uncle Roy has only come home from work, why don't you let him have some coffee before we start showing him what we have done." Hughes said to his excited daughter.

"But daddy you said that I could show him when he gets home." Elicia pouted.

"I know, but Roy has had a busy day, we need to let him rest first." Hughes reasoned with his eight year old daughter. Roy smile fondle at his best friend. "Thanks for this Hughes I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't of helped."

"No problem, How was work? Did you managed to convince Ed to fix your ornament?" Maes asked.

"Yeah though I had to work over time to finish my dead line for today." Roy said sitting down at his kitchen table.

"Riza made you stay behind did she?"

"Yea and it was her fiancé's fault, Fullmetal wanted me to have a private chat with him. I was in there for an hour before I ran back to my office and begged her not to shoot me." Roy replied Hughes was shocked.

"You mean that you and Ed sat in the same room on your own and had a talk with out you two killing each other?" He said not believing his ears.

"Well not exactly, we ended up in a fight to start with but then managed to sort it out and have a adult conversation."Roy said Hughes thought he was dreaming he placed his hand on his head to check for a temperature.

"Nope you aren't sick, now who are you and what have you done with the real Roy Mustang?"

"What? Is it so hard to believe that Ed and I can have a adult conversation without trying to murder each other." Roy asked, Hughes shook his head. "No I was just surprised that's all, so what do you think?" Roy looked around the his kitchen which was now sparkling. He then stood up from the table and walked into the living room which looked a lot different from when he had left for work that morning, there where photo's on the walls of him and his team, everything was now clear of dust and his once dull greyish carpet was now cream which was it's original colour. Elicia walked over to him and handed him the frame that she had saved up to buy him. "I was going to give it to you on you birthday, but when daddy said that you needed us to help clean your house because your girlfriend was coming for dinner with her mum and dad I thought that now was a good time, do you like it?" Elicia asked, Roy took the frame and smiled at her.

"I love it thank you, and I know the perfect picture to put in it." Roy said walking over to his desk in his study and pulled out a photo of him with the Hughes family a little while after Jake was born. He took the back of the picture frame off and placed the photo in it before placing it on the top of the fire place. Hughes smiled he had always known that Roy cared but was to proud and ashamed to admit it. They looked around the rest of the house to find that everything was in immaculate order except for his room that hadn't been touched.

"Thank you both for doing this, it means that all I have to do is worry about the dinner." Roy said given Elicia a pat on her head. "That's quit all right Roy, anything to help you get a wife." Roy smirked at his friend. "Well if you ever need a favour then let me know."

"Well actually...I was planning on taking Gracia out for our anniversary, I haven't been able to for a few years and I want to make her feel like she isn't just a mother and house wife but also the love of my life and that I haven't forgotten." Hughes said a little embarrassed.

"I'm sure that she doesn't need reminding, but if you would like I can look after Elicia and Jake for that night." Roy said given Elicia a smile.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to put you out." Hughes said concerned for his children if Roy was looking after them.

"I'm sure Maes, and don't worry about my capability neither it's not like it's the first time I've looked after a child." Roy replied, Hughes shivered at the memory.

"Don't remind me, that terrified me to death." Hughes said given Roy a wary look. Roy Frowned back at him.

"That wasn't my fault, how was I supposed to know that she was allergic to peanut butter?"

"She was two, your not supposed to give a child nuts of any kind until they are at least four or five." Hughes said wondering if it is a good idea to allow Roy to child mind his children.

"Look Hughes if it will make you feel better, I will ask Lisa or a friend of mine if they can help me." Roy said trying to reassure his friend, Hughes agreed.

"Well I had better let you get the cooking started, you wouldn't want to keep your guest waiting too long." Roy smiled, he said goodbye to his best friend and "Niece" and went to start on the dinner that Al had sent the recipe for.

At six there was a knock on Roy's front door, he put the shove on low so that the food wouldn't burn whilst he wasn't watching it and opened the door.

"Hey Roy, I hope that we aren't early." Lisa said given Roy a kiss and causing her father to frown. Roy just ignored it and allowed them to enter his home.

"No not at all, I was just cooking the vegetables to go with the beef." Roy said, he helped Lisa and her mother with their coats and hung them up on the coat peg, whilst Lisa's father took his own off and hung it up checking for dust first.

"Roy this is my mother and you have already meet on my father." Lisa said introducing them all. "Mother this is General Roy Mustang the Flame Alchemist." Roy offered his hand and gentle shock her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs Swan."

"It's nice to meet you too General Mustang, Lisa has told us all about you."

"All good I hope, and please call me Roy." Roy said with a charming smile. He guided them to the living room and sat them down on the couch and offered them some wine.

"Um Domaine font de Michelle, good choice of wine Roy." Lisa complemented.

"Thank you Lisa, well if you will excuse me I will finish of cooking the dinner, it shouldn't be too long now." Roy explained leaving them to set the table and check on the food. The beef looked like it was cook to perfection, he had checked it by sticking a skewer into it to check the juices which was clear and left it to stand for forty minutes just like Alphonse had instructed. The vegetables where cooked and the potatoes where roasted and crisp, the Yorkshire puddings where ready and the gravy just needed doing. Roy was pleased with himself he didn't think that he would been able to prepare and cook a meal like this, he started serving the meal and when the gravy was ready but it in a jug and put it on the table with the salt and pepper. He walked into the living taking off the apron that he was wearing and announced that dinner was served and guided them into his kitchen, Lisa sat down next to Roy and her dad whilst Roy was next to her mother and opposite her father who did seem to look impressed though he wouldn't openly admit it.

"Let's all say grace." Her father said as Roy picked up his fork to eat. Lisa frowned at him. "Dad I told you that Roy is a atheists, and besides this is his house..."

"I don't mind, besides you all are my guests it would be rude of me to ignore your traditions." Everyone was shocked they had never expected Roy to allow this in his own home. He put his hands together and bowed his head to prey.

"Lord thank you for the food that we are about to receive and for the wonderful company that I have with me tonight. Amen." Roy said, he looked up at Mr Swan for approval who nodded at him. "That was very nice Roy, thank you." He said, they all started eating and was amazed with how great the food was including Roy.

"Wow Roy this is amazing, I didn't know that you could cook." Lisa said eating a piece of beef.

"Neither did I, you know Edward, his brother Alphonse has agreed to help me improve my cooking skill since I'm not used to cooking for more than one." Roy said jokingly, Mr Swan gave him a suspicious look.

"You mean that you have never had another girl here for a candle lit dinner? I find that hard to believe, from what I have heard you are quit the ladies man." He said causing Roy to became uncomfortable.

"Well you see I have had a girl come over for dinner once but my food was so bad that I ended up giving her food poisoning, and back then I didn't know the Elric brothers so I couldn't ask for advice." Roy nervously explained, Lisa's mum put her hand on his to try and calm him.

"Don't worry Roy, we understand don't we dear?" She said turning to look at her husband who was squiring like a fish caught on a hook.

"Yes we do, it can't be easy trying to learn how to cook with all those hours you have to work."

"Yes it is quit difficult but now that I know Alphonse he has been sending recipes that are writing in steps that are easy to follow, once I have mastered the basics then I will ask him to send me harder recipes." Roy explained with pride.

"It's good to see, not many men are willing to learn these things for a girl, they expect to find a woman that will do it all for him." Mrs Swan commented. They finished their dinner and Roy took the plates and put them in the sink ready to wash up later.

"Would anyone care for some apple pie?" He asked pouring his guests a cup of coffee.

"Oh yes please, did you make it yourself?" Mrs Swan asked, Roy brought the apple pie to the table and cut everyone a slice.

"No this was made by the my best friends wife, who is an excellent cook." Roy explained they all sat and ate there desert in silence, once they had finished Roy put the plates in the sink and put the rest of the pie away before guiding his guests into the living room again. He poured them all a glass of wine each and went to sit down next to Lisa when he noticed that the fire had gone out in the fire place, without thinking he put on his gloves and snapped his figures relighting the fire and causing everyone else in the room to look at him.

"Wow that was incredible, is that the special alchemy that your famous for?" Lisa asked, she had never seen Roy use his alchemy and didn't know that much about it.

"Yes it is." Roy replied with sorrow in his voice, Lisa remembered what Roy had told her about the war and how ashamed he is with himself.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to..."

"You have nothing to be apologising for." Roy said interrupting her with a smile.

"I hear that alchemists train for several years with a teacher and then once they are skilled enough they go and create their own type of alchemy." Mr Swan said now being a little more relaxed from the wine he had been drinking.

"Yes in a lot of cases that is true, but not for me. I receive my alchemy from my form teacher who died many years ago." Roy replied sitting down next to Lisa.

"You must have had a very skilled teacher then, who was he?" Mrs Swan asked curious, Lisa gave Roy a worried look she already knew that Roy's old teacher was her uncle but was afraid that her father would think badly of him because of the fact that Roy knew her uncle.

"His name was Berthold Hawkeye." Roy replied causing Lisa's father to jump up.

"You mean that bastard was your alchemy teacher?" He asked furious, Roy nodded.

"Yes he was the one who tort me alchemy, though he wasn't the one who passed on the fire alchemy it was Riza who did that." Roy answered honestly, he didn't see the point in lying to them since the truth would come out eventually.

"Berthold Hawkeye wasn't the kindest person in the country and the way he treated his daughter was disgusting but he was the only person that I could find who would teach me alchemy, when he died I tried to help Riza by paying for the funeral and helping her find a place in central to live." Roy continued, Mr Swan nodded it did make sense since it was true that Hawkeye was a very skilled alchemist and Roy did take care of Riza after her father's death, but there was one thing that he wanted an answer to.

"Did you help Riza get her job in the millatery?" He asked, Roy shook his head.

"No and I was very surprised when I found out that she had, if you want the reasons for her joining then it would be better that you ask her." Roy said, Mr Swan nodded and held his hand out to him.

"Thank you for your honesty, it is obvious that you care for my daughter very much." He said giving Roy a smile.

"I thought that it would be rude of me if I wasn't Mr Swan."

"You can call me Christopher." Christopher said. The rest of the evening went well and soon it was time for them to go.

"Thank you Roy for inviting us to your lovely home, maybe you would love to come to have dinner with us sometime?" Katherine, Lisa's mother, asked.

"I would love to and once my cooking has improved I shall invite you all again with Edward and Riza." Roy suggested, they all said goodbye and Roy went into the kitchen to do the washing up before he went to bed. Once again Roy would be able to have a peaceful night without nightmares.

**Yay I finally finished this chapter, please R & R. It's a little longer than what I intended, I hope you all enjoy. I coudn't help the I love dogs joke it is one of my favourite scene from the last fma show lol.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I don't own fma or anything else in this fanfic**

A couple of months have passed and Ed had send his team to the south with Izumi so that they could have their final test, whilst Ed stayed in Central trying to help Riza organise their wedding plans. They had spoken to Armstrong and asked if they can use the garden to get married in and he agreed saying that he would sort out all of the arrangements.

"It is wonderful to see you happy Edward, it would be my pleaser to allow you both to get married at my family home." Armstrong boomed dramatically making Ed dodge from the expected bone crushing hug.

"Thank you Colonel, once we have decided on what decorations we want we will inform you and your staff." Ed said dodging another hug that would render him boneless.

"Have you both decided on when the wedding day is going to be?" Alex asked.

"Yes it will be the 20th May." Ed replied. "We are going to go and get some invitations made so that we can start sending them out." Ed said looking at his pocket watch.

"OK well I am so glad to see you two happy together, you both deserve each other." Armstrong said, Ed went to go and meet Riza.

At the park Roy and Lisa was walking through when Lisa saw a friend of hers. "Hey Jessica how are you?" She asked walking up to her friend.

"Lisa? Hey you I haven't seen you for a while, everything has been fine for me. How about you?" Jessica asked.

"I'm fine, this is my boyfriend Roy. Roy this is Jessica one of my oldies friends." Lisa said introducing them, Roy held his hand out to her.

"A pleaser to meet you." He said shaking her hand, Jessica looked at Roy and then realised who she was talking to.

"Your General Mustang aren't you, you are well known in the bar that I have just started working in 'The swinging cat'". Roy smiled he had made a lot of friends there and got a lot of girls there too.

"You don't say, I know the person that owns that bar. Does she still hose down everyone if they get too hyper?"

"Yea and she has started throwing ice water on the men who try and touch her girls to try and 'cool them off'." Roy laughed he remembered the first time he had tried getting fresh with one of her girls, she got the hose and drenched him from head to toe and said that next time she would throw ice over him, he ended up going home and getting a cold because it was in the middle of winter.

"Ha ha ha, sounds like the first day I met her, do you know Samantha?" Roy asked, Jessica nodded. "Yea and she has some stories to tell me about you, you naughty boy." Lisa was pissed she knew that this was how Roy used to act but it still got to her.

"So Lisa, I see you managed to get a hold of him. Where did you meet him? At a bar? In a club?"

"It was at the pub I usually go to and no I don't have anything to share with you." Lisa snapped glaring at Roy who looked like a cat caught in the headlights.

"What got down your pants? Roy and I were just talking." Jessica said a little offended. Lisa didn't answer she grabbed Roy's arm and walked away, Jessica waved to Roy and blow him a kiss saying that she may see him again at the bar.

"Lisa what's wrong?" Roy asked a little confused, Lisa sighed and stopped to look at him with accusing eyes.

"You where flirting with her right in front of me that's what." Lisa said still angry, she hadn't seen Jessica for a few months and the first thing she did was start hitting on her boyfriend who was known as the biggest womaniser in Central.

"I wasn't flirting with her, we where just talking about the bar that she works at, that I haven't been to since we started going out." Roy replied starting to get pissed of himself. Lisa gave Roy a hug, she didn't want to upset him like this.

"I'm sorry Roy, I just get worried when I see you talking to girls like that." Lisa explained.

"Lisa I have already told you that you are the only woman for me. I wouldn't allow you to stay over at my house if I didn't care." Roy said, he was wondering how many times he would have to tell her this before she got it.

"I know Roy and I'm sorry I promise to keep my jealousy at bay when we go out." Lisa promised. She kissed him knowing that Jessica would still be watching flicking her tongue out to ask him for entrance, Roy opened his month and allowed her to explore knowing that she was doing it to show her friend that he was hers.

"Why don't we stay in tonight." She whispered into his ear seductively, Roy took a deep breath trying to calm himself. "But we have already made plans and I was looking forward to going out with you." Roy said trying to hold back the urge to pick her up and run to his house. Lisa stopped what she was doing to Roy's relief and looked into his deep black eyes.

"OK Roy we will go out, but only if I can stay at your house again tonight." Lisa asked, Roy agreed they carried on with their walk before going back to his house to get ready for the night.

At the card shop Ed and Riza where looking through the book looking for the perfect one to sent as an invitation to all of their friends. "What about this one?" Ed asked looking at a white card that had flowers on it and two people standing next to each other holding hands. Riza shook her head. "No what about this one?" Riza asked pointing to a card with doves on it, Ed shook his head. They sat there for another fifteen minutes looking through the book when one of the cards caught their eyes.

"I think we have found what we where looking for." They both said simultaneously. It was a white card with different coloured butterflies on it. In fancy writing it said '_you are invited to...' _with a space where you could write down the occasion that the person was being invited to.

"Miss, we would like do order thirty of theses please." Ed said holding up the book to show the shop assistant what they wanted ordering, the assistant wrote down the number code for the card to get the price.

"OK sir that will be 200 cens please." Ed took out his wallet and paid the woman.

"What address do you want these sent to?" She asked, Ed and Riza looked at each other.

"Actually we where hoping that we could come in and pick them up ourselves." Riza said, the woman nodded. "OK well the cards will have to have the occasion written on to it first which can be specially done by one of our staff, how about you come and pick them up on Tuesday." The assistant suggested, Ed and Riza agreed they left their work number encase something happens and left to do the next job on the agenda, which was the caterers, Armstrong had said that he would do that but they wanted to find somewhere that does wedding cakes.

By the end of the day Ed and Riza was exhausted by all of the walking that they had done. "Ah I wise that I could drive, then we wouldn't have to do all of this walking." Ed complained rubbing his foot and aching auto-mail ports, he had been having a problem with his auto-mail for awhile but thought that he didn't have the time to go down to Rush Valley to get it checked out. Riza noticed the way that Ed was rubbing it and frowned at him.

"Your auto-mail is hurting again isn't it?" She said giving him a 'don't lie to me' look, Ed gulped he was hoping that Riza wouldn't notice, he knew that if she did then she would call Winry and then he would have to worry about getting hit by a wrench.

"It's just aching from the amount of walking that we have been doing today that's all, it will be fine after I have rested it awhile." Ed replied, but Riza wasn't having none of it, she picked up the phone and handed it to Ed in a threatening manner.

"Either you call Winry or I will, and I guaranty you that if I have to call her she will not be happy." She said, Ed sighed in defeat he took the phone from her and dialled the number to her shop in Rush Valley.

"Hello Winry's auto-mail shop Alphonse speaking how may I help you?" Al said on the other end of the line, Ed sighed in relief. "Hey Al it's me." He said in a cheerful voice.

"Hey Ed it's been awhile since you last called how have you and Riza been?" Al asked in his usual cheerful voice, Ed smiled it always cheered him up to be able to listen to Al's voice without the echoing sound from the armour his soul used to be trapped in.

"We are fine Al, is Winry there? I need to talk to her about my auto-mail, it's been acting up a little."Ed explained hopefully if Al can explain it to Winry then she won't try and attack him with her giant wrench.

"No sorry Brother she's just looking at another customer, but if you want I can let her know that you called and explain to her what the problem is?" Al suggested like he could read Ed's mind.

"Thanks Al that would be helpful." He replied, Ed told Al what the trouble was he was having as Al wrote it down for Winry.

"So it only starts to hurt after you have been walking around for awhile?"

"Yes, it feels like when you pull a muscle whilst having a workout." Ed explained.

"OK it doesn't sound like anything to dangerous but I will let Win know for you. Where are you calling from?" Al asked so that he could tell Winry.

"I'm at my apartment." Ed replied as someone knocked on his door.

"OK brother, well I will talk to you soon and rest that leg of yours, we don't want you making it worse by you walking around on it too much." Al said, they said goodbye and hung up the phone. Ed turned around to ask Riza who was at the door when he saw his dad standing in front on him with a suitcase.

"Hello Edward." He said with a smile, Ed gave Hohenheim a half hearted smile.

"Hey." He replied nervously. Riza left the room to go and make them all some tea whilst Hohenheim took of his jacket and hung it up. He looked at his son and smile noticing that he had grown since the last time he had seen him.

"I see that you have grown, how tall are you now?" He asked his nervous son trying to make conversation.

"I'm 5ft 8 now the same height as Mustang, so he can't call me short any more and I didn't have to drink milk to grow neither." Ed replied with pride, Hohenheim chuckled after all these years Ed still didn't like to drink milk. Ed noticing that his dad was still standing and told him to sit down and make himself at home.

"Thank you Edward, so Al tells me that you are a colonel now and that you and Miss Hawkeye are engaged to be married." Hohenheim said sitting down on one of the chairs, Riza came back into the living room with the teas and went back into the kitchen to get the milk and sugar for Hohenheim encase he wanted them.

"Thank you Miss Hawkeye." He said picking up his tea and taking a sip, Riza sat down next to Ed and gave Hohenheim a annoyed look.

"I have told you before that it's Riza." She said causing Hohenheim to apologise to her. "I'm sorry Riza I'm just so used to calling people by their last names." He explained.

They sat and talked for awhile, with Hohenheim telling them about the journey that he had been on and all the people that he had meet. "So you went to Xing so that you could say goodbye to the souls that where trapped inside of you for all those years." Ed said, Hohenheim nodded.

"Yes, you see in Xing the soul is very important and when one departs from this world they go up to the top of the mountain of souls and light a candle for every soul that has left to help them find their way to the next world." He explained.

"You mean that you went all the way there and lit over a million candles." Ed said in surprise.

"536,329 to be accurate." Hohenheim said. Ed and Riza couldn't believe it. Riza looked at the time and noticed that it was dinner time and went into the kitchen to prepare their dinner whilst Ed and his dad talked and got to know each other a little better. Whilst Ed and Hohenheim talked the phone rang again, Ed picked it up and answered already knowing who it was.

"Hello Ed Al tells me that you have done something to your auto-mail leg and that it keeps aching whan you walk on it." Winry said in her usual business manner, Ed smiled he knew that Winry would be all business.

"Yes it fells alittle sore and heavy, what do you think it is?" He asked her, the line went silent for a minute before she answered. "It sounds like one of you screws are loose, have you got someone there with you?" She asked.

"Yes my dad is here with me." Winry asked Ed to pass the phone to Hohenheim, she told him to check ed's leg for her and to see what screws where loose. "The screw that supports Ed's knew seems loose." Hohenheim said as he checked his sons auto-mail. Winry asked him to go and get a wench and to tighten up the screw and then to tell Ed to walk around on it to see if it was any better. Ed walked around and found that he wasn't limping on it anymore. "Wow it's almost like new." He said as he tested his leg by walking around on it. Winry was glade she didn't want to have to go all the way to central fix Ed's leg for a simple screw. She said that there wouldn't be a charge since she didn't actually do anything and told Ed that she and Al would be coming down in a few weeks ready for His and Riza's big day. Ed said good bye as Riza annonced that their dinner was ready, they sat and talked filling Hohenheim in with al of the things that Ed had acheived over the last few years.

At eleven Ed and his dad where saying goodbye to Riza when they heard shouted outside, Ed went over to the window to see what was going on and saw Roy and Lisa and another man that he didn't know arguing in the street.

"I WASN'T GOING TO DO ANYTHING WITH HER, SHE WAS THE ONE WHO SAT ON ME." Roy shouted at Lisa who was standing behind the other man.

"WE SAW YOU WHISPERING INTO HER EAR AND TOUCHING HER IN PLACES YOU SHOULDN'T OF BEEN TOUCHING." The man shouted back making Roy even more pissed of than what he already was.

"I W-WASN'T TALK...ING TO Y-YOU, AND WHO (HICK) DO YOU TH-THINK YOU ARE? (HICK) EVERY...TIME L-LISA AND I GO...OUT ANYWHERE Y-YOU HAPPEN TO BE TH-THERE." Roy shouted back, Ed opened the window so that he could hear them better and throw something at Roy for disturbing their evening.

"I KNEW THAT YOU WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF, ALL OF THOSE THINGS THAT YOU SAID THE OTHER WEEK WAS ALL LIES WEREN'T THEY?" Lisa screamed with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"NO T-THEY W-WEREN'T, EVERYTHING...THAT I TOLD YOU...W-WAS THE TRUTH." Roy screamed back causing someone to throw something at him telling him to shut up.

"WHAT ABOUT YOU...L-LISA? EVERYTIME I...T-TURNED A-AROUND...YOU WAS GONE AND S-S-SO WAS HE." Roy slurred pointing an accusing finger at her. "I BET Y-YOU...S-SET THIS UP S-SO THAT IT WOULD...LOOK LIKE IT WAS M-ME THAT WAS CH-CHEATING WHEN IT WAS REALLY...YOU WHO WAS SNEAKING...O-OF WITH HIM." Lisa's face contorted into a frown, without a word she turned around and walked away knowing that it would be better for them to talk about this when they where sober, but Roy wanted to talk now and tried to follow her but was stopped by Matthew who stood in front of him blocking his path.

"G-get out...of my w-way" Roy said trying to walk passed him but Matt kept on stepping in front of him. "I S-SAID GET THE FUCK OUT O-OF MY WAY." He screamed causing everyone who knew him to stare at him in shock. 'He must really be pissed, Roy never swears like that.' Riza thought as she made her way down the stair with Hohenheim following behind her to help calm the situation down before somebody got hurt.

"Ed call Hughes and tell him that we need his help with Roy." Riza instructed to him as she ran down the hall. Ed went to call Hughes like Riza had asked whilst she went down to try and talk Roy down. She got outside and realised that she was too late, Roy pushed Matt threatening to 'burn his dumb ass' if he didn't get out of his f***in' way.

"Lisa what happened?" She asked her cousin who was still walking away from the two drunk men.

"Roy was an ass again that's what happened." Was all that she said as she got to a safe distance and then stopped to wait for Matt who was getting right into Roy's face. Roy pushed Matt away again and put on his gloves that he kept in his pocket in case of an emergency.

"This is y-your last...w-warning, move or you...be-become a human...touch." Roy threatened again, but Matt just laughed. "Well go on then, show everyone what your murdering ass is capable of." Matt teased. Roy was seeing red he put his hands together ready to snap when a wall appeared in between them causing them to fall in surprise.

"You don't want to do that General, if you burn this man then you will be burning down your career." Ed said trying to reason with him, but Roy was to far gone to listen to reason. "This b-bastard is t-trying to steal my girlfriend." He argued, glaring at Matt.

"He did this to himself, he was the one who couldn't keep his hands of all the other girls in the bar." Matt argued back.

"Your...just jealous o-of me, you are...jealous of t-the fact that...I can g-get any...girl I want...and y-you can't e-e-even get one." Roy said with a smirk on his face. This made Matt really angry, he walked up to Roy and punched and kick him causing him to fall over again and smack his head on the hard road making him dizzy, in his defence Roy snapped his fingers causing fire to burn Matt's hand making him fall to the floor in agony. Lisa was in a complete panic, she didn't know what to do.

'This is all my fault, I should have told Matt to go home and leave us or something. What should I do?' She thought to herself as she watch in horror as her best friend and boyfriend fought with each other. Riza and Ed had had enough with the whole situation Ed restrained Roy as Riza draw her gun onto Matt. Matthew didn't like having a gun pointed to his head and without thinking balled his fist and punched Riza causing her to fall, Ed was furious, he let go of Roy and pinned Matthew with a arm-bar making Matthew scream out in pain.

"If you even think about fucking moving then I will break you fucking arm. Understand?" Matthew just lay there in silence, whilst Ed did this a car stopped near them and Hughes came running out. He saw Riza on the floor with blood pouring out of her nose and pointed his gun at Matt knowing that Roy wouldn't of been stupid enough to hit Riza again with Ed there watching.

"What happened?"

"This bastard attacked the General and then attacked Riza when she pointed her gun at him." Ed explained putting more pressure on his arm and making him cry out in pain again.

"H-he aagh he insulted me and then burned my agh hand." Matt said in his own defence, Maes wrote down all of the details asking everyone what had happened, Hohenheim explained that Roy only burnt Matt's hand because he was beating him up and was trying to get the man off of him, which everyone else confirmed.

"Alright Matthew Rodgers you are under arrest for assaulting two millatery officers, you are to remain silent, anything that you do say can and will be used in a court of law." Hughes said handcuffing Matt and putting him in the car to be taken down to the millatery jail cells.

"Wait please don't arrest him, he didn't mean to he's just drunk." Lisa said trying to stop Maes from taking her friend to jail. Maes gave her a sympathetic look.

"I'm sorry Lisa but I can't just let this go, the law is very clear about attacking millatery personnel on or off duty, you will have to try and convince Riza and Roy to not press charges." Maes said, he shut the door of the car and went to see if Roy and Riza was all right. Roy looked like he had fallen down a cliff and then kicked by very angry horses, he was black and blue all over. "Mr Hohenheim, could you run upstairs and call for an ambulance for Roy." He asked while trying to stop Roy from moving. Lisa didn't do anything to try an help to Riza's disappointment, she went up to the car to say goodbye to Matt and then left to go home without saying anything to her boyfriend or cousin who looked to have a broken nose. When the ambulance turned up they put Roy on a stretcher and put him in to the ambulance to take him to Central hospital.

"It looks like that he may have a few broken ribs and a broken nose but we can't be sure until we have a doctor look at him." The paramedics explained as they got him in to the ambulance. They drove him to the hospital with Ed and Riza getting into the car and driving down with Maes who was taking Matt to have his burnt hand looked at. Hohenheim also came along with them sitting in between Ed and Matt to prevent any more arguments from happening.

At the hospital Roy was already in a room being looked at by a doctor. "Well General Mustang, we will have to do some x-rays to determine if you have got any broken bones or not but first I want you to answer some questions for me." He said holding up a clip board with the questions on.

"First question: How much have you had to drink tonight?" Roy looked at the doctor has he tried to remember the amount of drinks he had had that evening. "I...I think I have...had um...I lost count." Roy said not being able to remember how much he had.

"OK do you have any auto-mail limbs that we need to know about?"

"N-no"

"Do you have a history of any clotting or blood disorders?"

"W-why ah ou askin' me this? Am I (HICK) dying? Do I need to have surgery?" Roy asked panicked, not liking the way the doctor was talking.

"This is just route procedure for a patient with your injuries, we need to know in case you have a internal bleed and we have to operate. There is nothing at the moment to worry about, I will tell you if anything is wrong OK." The doctor reassured talking to Roy like he was an child afraid to have an injection. "In t-that case...no I don't have any blood dis...or...ders that I...kn-know off." Roy replied, the doctor finished his route checks and ask one of the nurses to arrange for a x-ray to be done for Roy.

In another ward Riza was being looked at by a nurse who was checking the damage to her nose. "It looks like your nose is broken but it should heal alright, if you start having any more nose bleeds then come back in so that we can have a look but I think other than that and a few bruises you should be fine. Do you have any questions?" She asked as she wrote everything down on the chart ready for Riza to sign when she leaves.

"I do, how long will it take to heal? You see we are getting married in a few months and..."

"Don't worry, everything should be healed in a few weeks." The nurse reassured. She put a small white plaster over Riza's nose to help support it and asked Riza to sign the form before being discharged. They left their ward and looked for someone who could tell them where Roy had been sent to, they found the reception area and asked the receptionist who was filling her nail. She checked the patients admission list and told them that Roy was in the A&E wards. They found the ward that Roy was on and saw Roy being wheeled out by a doctor and nurse.

"Excuse me where are you going with him?" Ed asked the doctor who stop to talk to them. "We are taking him to have a x-ray done so that we know the extent of the damage his bones are in, we shouldn't be too long if you want to wait here for us." The doc said before turning around to get the x-rays done. Ed and Riza waited for thirty minutes by which point Hughes had turned up to check in on his friend. The nurse wheeled Roy back into the ward and got him comfortable leaving him to talk to his guests.

"Hey Roy how are you doing? Do you have any news yet?" Hughes asked standing by his bed whilst Riza found a chair and sat down on it next to Ed. Roy shook his head.

"No, but...doc said, agh t-that h-he...will (breath) kn-know some...more soon." Roy said trying to hide the pain, but Hughes and Riza could see that Roy was in a lot of pain. A few minutes later the doc came in holding Roy's x-ray results.

"Now General Mustang I have some good news and bad news, the good news is that the bones look as if they haven't caused you any lasting damage so there will be no need for there to be much treatment to be given, the bad news is that you will have to take some time of work and rest for a while, you will be in a lot of pain for at least week so we suggest that you try don't to move around as much." The doctor explained, Hughes frowned at him.

"He's in a lot of pain now, is there anything that you can give him?" He asked.

"I'm afraid not, not until the alcohol that is in his system has got. If we gave him now whilst he's still drunk then we may accidentally overdose him." The doctor explained, he explained to Roy the expected time of recovery and arranged a date for Roy to come back in for his check up appointment.. "Here this is for the medication he will need to pick up tomorrow, he will have to take two a day." He said handing the prescription. They got Roy into a wheelchair and got Hughes to sign him out before taking him to the car to take him back to Hughes' to stay for a few days.

Over the weeks Roy stayed at home and had Riza help him with things like cooking or keeping the house tidy whilst he recovered, Roy and Riza didn't press charges though there was a order put up saying that Matthew couldn't come anywhere near neither of them and if he did he would be arrested for disobeying the millatery's orders. Lisa never came over to visit Roy, he had had a get well card sent from her parents that surprised him but had heard nothing from her. This caused Roy to become very depressed, he would try asking Riza or Hughes to get him something for him to drink but they wouldn't because of his painkiller, this made him extremely grouchy. He would mope around the house complaining about everything making Riza and Maes want to strangle him.

It took a month for before Roy was able to go back to work which gave Riza and Hughes great relief, Riza getting pissed with Roy's attitude went down to talk to Lisa about what had happened.

"Lisa you are going to have to talk to him eventually, it's not like you did anything wrong so he's not mad at you, he's just depressed that you haven't been to see him and you won't return his calls." Riza explained, Lisa just sat in her chair and sighed.

"I would love to get back with Roy, but I can't stand the constant drinking every time we go out, I don't know what to do to help him." Lisa replied.

"What if we all work together, I'm sure that if we keep being persistent with him he will be able to stop."

"I don't think he can, it will take a lot for him to convince me that he has changed, and until that day we are no longer in a relationship." Lisa said refusing to listen to reason.

"What about Matthew? Are you going to keep seeing him?" Riza asked angry with her cousin.

"I have told him that we are no longer friends, it was him who started the fight that Friday night."

"Then why are you doing this to Roy? You do know how much he loves you, he can't concentrate at work, he's driving everyone nuts with his endless moping. He's even worse than Hughes and that's saying a lot." Riza explained.

"If Roy really cares then he will have to do something that will prove it to me." Lisa said, Riza nodded she understood where Lisa was coming from but she wasn't sure that Roy would, she left Lisa's apartment and headed over to Hughes they needed to form a plan.

A week later Hughes walked into Roy's office to find Roy signing away at his work, it was getting close to Ed and Riza's wedding day and Roy was trying to get all of his work up to date so that he wouldn't get shot at by the Major when she gets back from her honeymoon. "You know Roy you have got plenty of time to get all of that done, why don't you relax." Maes said sitting down on the couch, Roy just ignored him he knew why he was in his office and he didn't want to have to listen to it any more.

"Hughes if your here to convince me to get back with Lisa then your wasting your breath, she's probable found someone else to got out with." Roy said signing a form and putting it on the finished pile before reaching for another one.

"That's not what she told Riza,she does still care for you but she wants you to stop drinking all the time and prove your love to her." Hughes explained.

"And how am I supposed to do that? Know matter what I do she will still find something, I can't even talk to a girl without her getting jealous." Roy said getting annoyed.

"There is away, all you have to do is prove to her that you can stop drinking and you can talk to a girl without flirting, that you are no longer the man who dates every woman in Central." Hughes said catching Roy's interest. "Riza and I have a plan."

"I'm listening Hughes, what's the plan." Hughes explained the plan to Roy whilst he continued to work, they had four weeks to get everything ready so they had to get started if they wanted it to work, they had a lot of work to do.

The week before the wedding and everyone was starting to get excited, Winry and Al had left Rush Valley leaving Winry's assistant Malcolm to attend the shop. Winry and Riza went out to go shopping for wedding clothes and things whilst Ed and Al stayed at home with there dad. "I can't believe it in a weeks time I'm going to be married to Riza." Ed said not believing that it was happening.

"You starting to get nervous?" Hohenheim asked.

"Yes, I dread to think how I'm going to feel on the day." Ed replied, he and Al had already got there suits and Al was busy writing his speech since he was the best man. "How do you think I feel, you don't have to sat in front of everyone a give a speech." Al said trying t think of the best way to word it.

"I shouldn't think that it would be that difficult, it should write it's self." Hohenheim said, he had only ever been to one wedding in his long life and he never got married to Trisha so he could only imagine what Ed was going through.

"That's the problem, I've so much I can say but I don't want to bore everyone to sleep, and not everyone knows about our journey." Al said writing something on a piece of paper and then ripped the page out and scrunched it into a ball and through it into the bin.

Whilst Al was trying to write his speech and Hohenheim and Ed talking about the wedding plans, Riza, Lisa and Winry was out shopping for there dresses.

"What type of dress are you looking for?" Winry asked as they walked around the shop looking at all the beautiful dresses.

"I was thinking that since the ceremony is going to be outside that I would go for a nice spring dress, but not one of these with no straps." Riza replied, she looked at all of the dresses they had just about given up and was going to go to another wedding shop went Lisa picked up a dress and showed it to Riza.

"What do you think Riza, I think it will suit you well and it won't matter if you have your hair up or not." Lisa said holding up the dress, Riza loved it she went to the shop assistant and bought the dress, she wrote down her address so that the dress could be delivered there and told them when she needed the dress delivered for. Now that Riza had her dress they needed to find Winry and Lisa there bridesmaids dresses, they asked the assistant if they do bridesmaids dresses and she told them that they didn't but there was a nice shop down the road that did some. They went and looked at all the dresses until they found the ones that they liked and paid, they took the dresses back to Riza's apartment where she hid them in her wardrobe ready for the morning that she would be getting married. The week went on and soon it was the night before the wedding, Ed, Al and Hohenheim meet Roy and the gang at Madam Christmas' bar. They went in and Roy asked his adoptive mother to set the drinks. The bar was quite with only them there and a couple of the girls who all ran up to Roy to give him a hug and to take everyone's coat.

"I still don't know why we have to do this, why can't we just have a small get together?" Ed asked worried that Roy was going to get him and his brother completely drunk.

"But it's your last night of freedom, and besides it's tradition." Havoc said as he downed his brandy and asked for another. He turned and looked at Roy who was stood at the bar with a glass of orange juice talking to one of the girls and showing her something.

"Hey General I hope that there is alcohol in that drink." Havoc shouted raising his glass, Roy groaned in annoyance he knew that someone would bring that up.

"No Havoc there isn't, as I have already told you all I am not going to be drinking tonight or tomorrow." Roy replied, Breada laughed at this. "You can't be serious, you mean that you aren't going to be drinking anything at all." Breada asked.

"The only thing that I will be drinking tonight will be orange juice or coffee, and I don't want to be seeing you forcing Ed and Al to drink neither this is his bachelor party and he does have to get up early in the morning, we don't want to make him sick." Roy replied drinking his orange juice.

"So you are actually going through with it then?" Fuery asked as he drank his beer, after what happened when they defeated Father Fuery had come out of his shell more and came out drinking with them more often.

"She's the first woman in a long time to make me fall in love, and if all it takes is for me to stop drinking and to show her that I care then I will." Roy said, Havoc and Breada started making bets as everyone else continued with the party.

At another bar Riza and her friends where having a good time talking about the wedding and who they where going to go with. "Well obviously my date will be Al who is Ed's best man." Winry said drinking her glass of wine. "We all know who Gracia is going with, is Elicia's dress ready for tomorrow?" Rebecca asked who had come down from the East to see her best friend get married.

"Yes and she looks so pretty in it, Maes has already said that he is going to be taking lots of pictures of her and everyone else." Gracia replied making everyone else laugh.

"Trust Hughes to do the photography, he should have been a photographer whether than a detective." Winry said. "So Lisa have you found anyone to go with?"

"No I though about picking someone up from this bar and taking him to make Mustang jealous, but I don't think it will make a difference I bet that he has already found some easy going girl to go with to show off on his arm." Lisa replied, she downed her drink and poured herself another. Riza smiled to herself, she knew that Roy wasn't going with anyone and knew what he has got planned for her tomorrow. She ignored all of the suspicious stares she was getting and turned to Rebecca to see if she had found anyone yet.

"No I decided that I will go alone, you never know I might meet someone there I hear that weddings are the best lace to find a good man." Rebecca replied, they all sat there and drank for a few hours before going home ready for the day Riza had been waiting for her whole life.

The sun was shining and Armstrong was walking around his mansion and gigantic garden making sure that everything was as Ed and Riza wanted it. There was a beautiful arch with white and yellow roses on and chairs facing the alter where Ed and Riza will be saying there 'I dos', Alex pulled out his handkerchief and dried his eyes as he looked at the men and woman he had hired putting the finishing touches on the alter. He moved when he saw two of the men carrying the red carpet that Riza would walk down, he checked everything before going inside the house to wait for his guests to arrive.

An hour later the guests stared arriving, Alex guided them to the open bar that he had in one of his many rooms, he asked the bar keeper to sever the guests whilst he went to check on Riza who was already there with Winry and Lisa getting ready. He knocked on the door and waited till someone answered before walking in. "Hello miss Winry I just came to see if you girls wanted anything." Alex said, Winry shook her head.

"No thank you Colonel Armstrong, has the guests started arriving yet?" She asked.

"Yes it looks like everyone is here, Ed and Al arrived a little while ago." Alex replied, Winry thanked him and told him that they would be ready in another half an hour. Alex went back down stairs to inform the guests that they could go and sit at the alter ready for the bride to arrive. At the alter Ed and Al was standing waiting for his blushing bride and wondering what see would be wearing. Al checked in his pocket to make sure that he still had the rings for the tenth time that morning. "Al don't worry everything will go fine, I trust you." Ed reassured him Al took his hands out of his pocket and put them in front of him like he was putting them on his lap. "I know brother, I just want everything to go perfectly for the two of you." Al replied they looked around the garden and saw all of the people that had come to see Ed and Riza get married. Their Father sat next to Pinako who smiled fondly at him, Maria Ross and Danny Brosh was there together holding hands as they went to sit on the grooms side next to their dad, Hughes was sitting next to Roy and the gang with his camera ready, Havoc sat next to Sarah who gave Ed a wink and mouthed 'you look like a price' to him making him blush and causing Sarah and Havoc to giggle. The music soon started playing and everyone settled down and turned to look for the bride. Gracia came down the carpet next to Elicia putting flower petals down in front of them as they walked, they both wore a pretty pink dress with pink flowers on them, Hughes started snapping away with his camera as his wife and daughter walked down the carpet towards the alter to sit in the front seats on Riza's side, next came Winry and Lisa who both wore silk lilac coloured dresses and had a white roses in their hair, Al and Roy both looked as if they had died and gone to heaven as the girls of their dreams walked down and stood by the alter as Riza walked down with her Grandfather, when Ed saw Riza walking towards him his jaw hit the floor, he had never seen Riza look as beautiful as she did in that moment, she was wearing a beautiful silk white dress that had a embroiled flower pattern on it that went across the top part of the dress and then down the left side to the bottom, the straps of the dress was made out of lace and covered her shoulders only showing a little of the flesh that was underneath. She had her hair up in a high bun that was covered with her Vail and she had a diamond and sapphire tiara on that sparkled in the sun light, she walked up to him and smiled as they bot held hands and turned to the priest to take there vows.

At the reception everyone was talking about how beautiful Riza looked in her white dress. "Why did you find that dress Riza it is just to die for." asked Emily as she admired it's beauty. "I got it at the wedding dress shop in town, the one opposite the hunters moon café." Riza replied, whilst everyone was talking Roy was sat at the bar ordering himself another coffee, he had everything all set up for Lisa and now had to wait until after Ed and Riza had their first dance as husband and wife. Soon enough Ed and Riza was being called onto the dance floor and was dancing to their song that was being sung by the same band that they had danced to three years before.

"You look beautiful Riza, all you need now are your wings and you could go up to heaven." Ed said as he guided her across the dance floor, Riza blushed she leaned forward and kissed him making everyone in the room to go 'aw' at them. They danced slowly to the music listening to the words as they where sung. The song soon came to an end and Ed and Riza took a bow as everyone in the room clapped and cheered them, now it was Roy's turn he walked onto the stage and took the microphone from Sophie and spoke into it to try and get everyone's attention.

"Hello if I could have everyone's attention I would like to say a few words." Roy said causing everyone to turn and look at him. "First of all I would like to say how glad I am to see Ed and Riza finally happy, and hope that they have a long and fulfilling life together." He said raising his glass and causing everyone else to do the same.

"To Ed and Riza."

"Now I would like to sing a song that I have written for a special woman that I love dearly, I hope that you all like it." Roy handed the band the papers with the music on it and waited for the music to being.

'_Look into my eyes, you will see what you mean to me, search your heart, search you soul and when you and when you find me there you'll search no more.'_

Lisa turned around and listened to the words that Roy was singing to her, her cheeks turned to a soft pink and her insides turned upside down as she listened to him declare his love for her.

_'Don't tell me it's not worth trying for, you can't tell me it's not worth dying for. You know it's true, everything I do, I do it for you._

_Look into your heart you will find there's nothing there to hide, take me as I am, take me life, I would give it all I would sacrifice.'_

All the women in the room where at the stage now listening to the words and wishing that there where for them, but knew that they weren't.

'_Don't tell me it's not worth fighting for, I can't help it there's nothing I want more. You know it's true everything I do, I do it for you._

_There's no love like your love and no other could give more love, there's nowhere unless your there all the time all the way._

Armstrong took his hanky out again and he sobbed, he had never heard anything so beautiful in all his life and thought that he could explode with happiness from the devotion that he was seeing.

All the women in theroom swooned as Roy's velvet voice sang out and find the room with all the love and devotion that he felt for his love.

_'Oh you can't tell me it's not worth trying for, I can't help it there;s nothing I want more. _

_Yea I would fight for you, I'd lie for you, walk the wire for you, yea I'd die for you. You know it's true everything I do...I do it for you.' _When Roy finished singing the room erupted with applause, Roy went into his jacket pocket and pulled out a little black book.

"For all of you that don't know this is my phone number book where I keep every number of every girl I have ever dated." Roy said as he held up the little black book for everyone to see, as Roy did this everyone noticed that the gloves that he was wearing weren't the same one's that he had been wearing before and that the ones he was wearing now were his alchemy gloves. Before anyone could blink he through the book in to the air and snapped his fingers causing the book to go up into flames.

"Lisa Swan I haven't loved anyone like I have loved you please will you forgive me and give me another chance." Roy asked as he went down on his knees. Everyone turned to face Lisa who was now walking towards the stage, she looked at the pile of ash that used to be his phone book before looking into his deep black eyes.

"I will Roy Mustang." She said before kissing him passionately in front of everyone, Roy gang sat there speechless, they never expected him to burn his book to ash, they all glared at Al who came over to collect his winnings.

"You cheated Al, how else would you have known that he would burn his book." Breada said as he handed the money over to him. "I just know how devoted the General is to Lisa and knew that the only way that he could prove his love to her was by getting ride of his book." Al replied as he pocked his winnings.

"I still say that you cheated, I bet you where the one that but the idea into his head." Havoc said Al shook his head.

"No I just have been observing him for the last couple of weeks." Was all Al said as a replied, he thank them for the money and walked over to congratulate Roy and Lisa getting back together.

Over the next two years things changed for the better, Ed and Riza had to children and lived in the west where Ed had moved with his team to work under Brigadier General Drake, Lisa and Roy had gotten married and had their first child on the way and Roy was now the Fuhrer of Amestris after Grumman retired into the county. Roy smiled to his expecting wife as they drove home from a dinner party that they had been invited to by Havoc who had announce that he and Sarah would be getting married that winter. Roy thought about everything that he and everyone under him had been through to get where they where now, it had been hard and he thought that he would never make it but he guessed that good things do come to those who wait.

**Thanks for reading I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please let me know what you think.**


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